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Some  Contributors : 

SIR  OLIVER  LODGE 

ALGERNON  CHARLES  SWINBURNE 

LEO  TOLSTOY 

SIR  WILLIAM  RAMSAY 

W.  M.  FLINDERS  PETRIE 

SIR  WILLIAM  CROOKES 

PAUL  VINOGRADOFF 
THE  HON.  W.  H   FREMANTLE 

(Dean  of  Ripon) 

RUDUOLF  EUCKEN 

F.  W.  MOTT 

SVANTE  ARRHENIUS 

ERNEST  A.  GARDNER 

SIR  WILLIAM  A.  TILDEN 

&c.  &c. 

HARPER    AND    BROTHERS 

45  Albemarle  St.  London.  W,  Franklin  Sq.  New  York. 


MATTER 

AND  SOME  OF  ITS 
DIMENSIONS 


BY 

WILLIAM 

KEARNEY 

CARR 


HARPER    & 
BROTHERS 

LONDON  &  NEW  YORK 


A  CONCEPT  OP  THE  ETHER 

(See  p.  41) 


MATTER 

AND 

SOME   OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 


BY 


WILLIAM   KEARNEY   CARR 

AUTHOR  OF 

"  CAPITALISTIC  MORALITY  " 
"THE  AMERICAN  DOLLAR  "  ETC. 


LONDON   AND   NEW   YORK 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS 

1913 


COPYRIGHT.    IBIS.    BY    HARPER   ft    BROTHERS 


PUBLISHED    OCTOBER.     1913 
K-N 


"BD 

331 


MATTER  AND   SOME  OF 
ITS  DIMENSIONS 


ESTIMATED  by  its  results,  the  French 
Revolution  was  one  of  the  most  important 
epochs  in  history,  since  it  destroyed  feudalism 
and  the  privilege  of  blood.  In  eliminating  one 
devouring  force,  however,  it  ushered  in  another, 
modern  capitalism,  which  metamorphoses  men 
into  machines,  destroys  their  bodies  and  en- 
slaves their  imaginations  and  their  souls. 

The  aspect  of  the  Western  world,  especially 
in  America,  and  east  of  the  Mississippi  River, 
has  been  wholly  changed  within  the  last 
twenty-five  years.  Men  of  ability  and  ambi- 
tions no  longer  find  the  farms  an  outlet  for  their 
energies,  and  the  drift  of  these  to  the  cities  has 
transformed  the  old  American  hearthstone  into 
1 

1003391 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

the  radiator  of  the  apartment  house,  with  all 
that  that  implies.  This  change  in  the  domestic 
condition  has  brought  about  a  corresponding 
change  in  the  intellectual  complexion  of  the 
race. 

Countless  millions  still  find  ineffable  conso- 
lation in  the  sheltering  arms  of  the  old  ortho- 
dox faiths.  There  are  a  few  restless  spirits, 
however,  to  whom  the  ancient  ideals  no  longer 
appeal,  and  they  are  casting  about  for  new 
anchorages.  This  is  evidenced  by  the  un- 
paralleled demand  for  non-orthodox  religious 
and  philosophical  literature.  Everything  is 
read  with  avidity,  from  the  Christian  Science 
doctrines  of  Mrs.  Eddy  to  the  literature  of  the 
so-called  "tricks"  of  the  Indian  fakirs.  The 
inventive  genius  of  man  has  been  so  stimulated 
that  nothing  seems  impossible,  and  many  now 
believe  that  the  dream  of  ages  will  be  realized 
in  the  production  of  some  physical  proof  of  a 
life  beyond  the  grave. 

However  that  may  be,  the  revelations  of 
modern  science  seem  to  demonstrate  that  not 
2 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

only  is  there  no  antagonism  between  religion 
and  science,  but  that  the  latter  may  eventually 
do  much  towards  elucidating  this  greatest  of  all 
problems. 

Particularly  is  this  true  with  reference  to  the 
electrical  theory  of  matter,  which  seems  to  give 
a  moral  value  to  the  intellectual  perceptions  of 
modern  physicists.  Though  not  yet  elevated 
to  the  dignity  of  a  universally  accepted  theory, 
it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  its  advocates 
are  to  be  found  among  the  world's  greatest 
thinkers,  and  that  their  numbers  daily  increase. 

The  content  of  the  following  pages  is  to  be 
regarded  in  the  light  of  an  hypothesis  only. 
The  facts  have  been  culled  from  a  variety  of 
sources,  and  only  those  discussed  which  are 
well  recognized  in  the  scientific  and  philosoph- 
ical worlds.  Much  time  has  been  expended  in 
marshaling  these  facts,  but  the  writer  feels  that 
he  will  be  more  than  repaid  if,  in  the  case  of  a 
single  reader,  he  has  dulled  the  edge  of  doubt 
or  caused  one  sorrow  to  seem  less  real. 
3 


MATTER    AND    SOME 


CHAPTER  I 

FROM  the  earliest  times  men  have  pon- 
dered the  great  problem  of  their  existence 
and  their  environment.  Anaximander,  the 
Greek  philosopher,  as  early  as  the  fifth  cen- 
tury before  Christ,  in  order  to  account  for 
matter,  was  forced  to  postulate  the  existence 
of  an  all-pervading  substance  which,  for  want 
of  a  better  name,  men  have  in  later  days 
called  the  ether.  To  build  up  matter  out  of 
this  all-pervading  substance  he  was  compelled 
to  subdivide  it  into  unit  particles,  and  these 
unit  or  ultimate  particles  he  conceived  to  be 
fine  precipitations  of  the  ether  within  the  ether 
itself.  Thus  his  system  was  pre-eminently 
monistic,  for  with  the  ether  and  the  precipita- 
tions within  itself,  or,  in  other  words,  with  the 
ether  alone,  he  felt  that  he  was  able  to  account 
4 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

for  matter  in  all  its  aspects.1  Intensely  philo- 
sophic, still  the  Greek  mind  of  that  day  was 
unprepared  for  a  theory  so  advanced,  and  thus 
the  dualism  of  Democritus,  because  more  read- 
ily comprehended,  gradually  rose  to  ascend- 
ancy. This  dualistic  theory  has  maintained 
itself  even  to  this  day;  it  is  a  theory  which 
accounts  for  matter  by  assuming  the  existence 
of  the  eternal  indestructible  atom  vibrating  in 
the  all  -  pervading  eternal  ether  —  a  theory 
which,  in  a  measure,  is  elucidated  by  the  dia- 
gram Fig.  1.  Here  is  presented  a  molecule  of 
carbonic  acid  gas.  It  is  composed,  as  you  ob- 
serve, of  two  atoms  of  oxygen  and  one  of  car- 
bon. Now,  only  by  comparison  can  we  arrive  at 
any  possible  conception  of  the  size  of  a  molecule. 

1  The  reader  must  not  fall  into  the  error  of  believing 
that  Anaximander's  concept  of  the  ether  was  that  en- 
tertained at  the  present  time.  The  modern  concept  was 
ushered  in  by  Dalton,  the  great  English  chemist  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  Anaximander 
felt  the  necessity  of  postulating  the  existence  of  just  one 
all-pervading  substance  to  account  for  all  phenomena, 
and  that  the  revelations  of  modern  laboratories  tend 
to  confirm  the  truth  of  his  theory. 
5 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

The  smallest  object  that  can  be  seen  dis- 
tinctly by  the  human  eye  at  a  distance  of  ten 
inches  is  1/250  of  an  inch  in  diameter.  The 
resolving  power  of  a  good  microscope  being 
about  1/50,000  of  an  inch,  little  trouble  is 


FIG.  1. — A  MOLECULE  OF  CARBONIC  ACID  GAS: 
OLD  CONCEPT 

experienced  in  observing  an  object  so  minute 

as  the  spores  of  the  anthrax  bacillus,  which 

are  1/24,000  of  an  inch  in  diameter.     Under 

6 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

favorable  circumstances  we  can  see  the  ex- 
quisite tracings  on  diatoms  30,000  of  which 
are  required  to  make  an  inch.  But  the  mole- 
cule is  a  very  different  matter.  Though  no 
human  eye  has  ever  beheld  a  molecule,  yet 
experiments  and  indirect  measurements  have 
been  made  which  give  us  a  fairly  accurate  idea 
as  to  its  size  and  weight.  One  of  the  smallest 
infusoria  known  is  the  Monas  Dallingeri,  which 
is  about  1/6,000  of  an  inch  in  diameter.  Each 
of  its  spores  is  an  independent  living  organism, 
not  larger  than  1/60,000  of  an  inch,  and  yet 
contains  268  millions  of  molecules.  But,  small 
as  they  are,  they  are  veritable  giants  in  rela- 
tion to  the  atoms,  for  the  molecule  may,  and 
often  does,  contain  many  hundred  atoms.  In 
the  molecule  of  carbonic  acid  gas,  however,  we 
have  only  three  atoms,  and  this  material  has 
been  selected  for  our  purpose  because  it  is  one 
of  the  simplest  of  all  the  many  compound 
bodies.  The  zigzag  lines  represent  a  rapid 
vibratory  motion  of  the  atoms  from  the  center 
of  the  molecule  to  the  periphery,  and  in  addi- 
7 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

tion  to  this  there  is  a  motion  of  translation 
of  the  atoms  around  the  center  of  gravity  of 
the  system.  They  are  depicted,  as  you  will 
observe,  as  solid  spheres,  in  accord  with  the 
universally  accepted  opinion  that  they  are  the 
unit  bricks  or  ultimate  particles  of  which  the 
universe  of  matter  is  constructed;  that  they 
are  homogeneous,  eternal,  indestructible,  and 
cannot  be  further  cut  or  divided.  This  opin- 
ion almost  universally  obtains  to-day,  and  any 
suggestion  of  the  necessity  for  a  change  in 
belief  would  be  received  with  scant  courtesy, 
even  though  it  emanated  from  a  man  of  repu- 
tation. Still,  men  of  prescience  long  ago  felt 
that  the  atom,  after  all,  might  not  be  so  simple 
a  body. 

In  1808  Sir  Humphry  Davy,  at  the  Royal 
Institution,  speculated  on  the  existence  of  some 
substance  common  to  all  the  metals,  and  in  1875 
Prof.  W.  K.  Clifford,  than  whom  no  grander 
soul  ever  lived,  said:  "There  is  every  reason 
to  believe  that  the  material  atom  carries  upon 
itself  a  small  electric  current,  if  indeed  it  does 
8 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

not  wholly  consist  of  this  current."  Faraday 
again,  in  1848,  believed  that  the  young  men 
of  his  time  would  live  to  see  the  homogeneous 
atom  regarded  as  a  very  complex  body. 
Finally,  Prof.  J.  J.  Thompson,  in  1885,  in  a 
noteworthy  address,  gave  us  mathematical 
data  which  enabled  us  to  say  that  if  the  quan- 
tity of  electricity  usually  associated  with  a 
hydrogen  monad  atom  was  consolidated  on  a 
spherical  nucleus  1/100,000  of  the  diameter  of 
the  atom,  that  the  mass  of  the  nucleus  would 
be  1/1,000  of  that  of  the  atom.  Here  at  once 
experiment  and  mathematical  reasoning  began 
to  confirm  the  prophecies  of  the  men  of  a 
prior  generation. 

In  Fig.  2  we  have  a  diagram  of  the  most 
modern  concept  of  an  atom.  It  is  the  same 
molecule  of  carbonic  acid  gas  that  we  have 
seen  before  in  Fig.  1,  but  the  atom,  instead  of 
being  pictured  as  a  solid,  is  filled  with  the 
spherical  nuclei  of  J.  J.  Thompson.  Now 
what  are  these  spherical  nuclei ,  or  electrons, 
as  they  have  been  termed?  To  properly  con- 
2  9 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

ceive  of  them  we  must  resort  to  analogy.  We 
are  told  that  these  electrons  are  infinitely  small 
stresses,  or  strains,  or  vortices  in  the  ether; 


FIG.  2. — A  MOLECULE  OF  CARBONIC  ACID  GAS: 

MODERN  CONCEPT 

but  these  terms  convey  nothing  very  definite 
to  the  mind.  Place  a  mass  of  quivering  jelly 
upon  a  table,  plunge  a  knife  into  each  side, 
and  give  the  knives  a  twist  in  opposite  direc- 
tions. A  strain,  or  stress,  or  torsion  exists 
10 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

between  the  points  of  the  knives,  but  in  no 
sense  can  the  stress,  or  torsion,  be  considered 
matter.  Now  move  the  stress  around  a  cen- 
tral point  in  the  mass  of  jelly,  and  a  certain 
amount  of  bound  jelly  will  be  carried  along 
with  the  stress,  and  the  moving,  bound  jelly, 
because  of  the  motion,  will  have  weight,  or 
mass,  or  inertia.  Increase  the  speed  of  rota- 
tion of  the  stress,  and  the  mass  of  the  bound 
jelly  will  also  be  increased.  In  like  manner 
we  may  conceive  an  exceedingly  small  vortex 
moving  in  the  ether.  This  moving  vortex,  or 
electron,  will  carry  along  with  it  a  certain 
amount  of  bound  ether  which  will  increase  as 
the  motion  of  the  electron  is  accelerated. 
Thus  it  appears  that  mass,  so  called,  is  a  func- 
tion of  speed,  since  the  greater  the  motion  of 
the  electron  the  greater  the  amount  of  bound 
ether  carried  along  with  it,  and  the  greater  the 
amount  of  bound  ether  the  greater  the  mass 
or  inertia.  Electrons,  then,  are  not  matter 
in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word;  that  is, 
they  do  not  possess  mass  other  than  that 
11 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

which  they  seem  to  possess  by  reason  of  their 
motion  and  their  electric  charge. 

Electrons  are  the  bodies  of  the  smallest 
masses  known  to  science.  They  can  be  de- 
tected only  in  motion,  and  their  apparent  mass 
increases  with  their  speed  as  they  approach 
the  velocity  of  light.  In  Fig.  3  we  have  shown 
three  positions  of  an  electron  speeding  around 
the  center  of  gravity  of  the  atom.  As  it  moves 
through  the  ether  it  radiates  its  energy;  as  it 
radiates  its  energy  it  falls  towards  the  center, 
and  as  it  falls  towards  the  center  its  velocity 
increases.  This  increase  of  motion  brings 
about  an  increase  of  mass  until,  finally,  when 
a  velocity  is  attained  comparable  with  that  of 
light,  as  at  c,  the  electron  leaves  the  system 
traveling  at  the  rate  of  110  thousand  miles 
per  second. 

Kaufmann's  mathematical  deductions  enable 
us  to  say  that  when  a  body  has  attained  a  speed 
not  greater  than  twenty  per  cent,  of  that  of 
light,  its  mass,  hitherto  represented  by  1,  has 
not  materially  altered;  accurately  it  is  1.01. 
12 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 


Increase  the  speed  to  one-half  of  that  of  light, 
and  its  mass  is  but  slightly  altered  (1.11). 
Increase  it  to  99.9  per  cent  of  that  of  light, 


\ 


FIG.  3. — DISCHARGE  OF  AN  ELECTRON 


and  still  there  is  relatively  little  change,  for 

the  mass  has  increased  by  sixfold;  accurately 

13 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

6.6.  But  just  before  the  velocity  of  light  is 
attained  its  mass  would  become  infinite. 
Before  this  occurs,  however,  something  would 
happen;  the  atom  would  begin  to  dissociate, 
the  electrons  leaving  it  with  enormous  velocity, 
and  in  the  manner  above  described.  The 
above  statement,  had  it  been  made  a  few  years 
ago,  would  have  described  only  a  theory  held 
by  a  few  very  advanced  physicists.  To-day 
the  statement  accurately  describes  the  con- 
ditions obtaining  in  an  atom  of  radium.  In 
other  words,  the  theory  was  evolved  mathe- 
matically before  the  discovery  of  radium, 
which  later  confirmed  it,  and  practically  in 
every  detail.  In  Fig.  4  we  have  the  electrons 
revolving  around  the  center  of  gravity  of  the 
system,  and  some  are  pictured  as  having  at- 
tained a  velocity  sufficiently  great  to  bring 
about  the  dissociation  of  the  atom.  You  will 
observe  that  several  in  their  journey  outward 
from  the  center  of  the  atom  have  had  a  free 
and  unobstructed  path,  and  are  leaving  the 
system  at  a  velocity  of  110,000  miles  per  sec- 
14 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 


FIG.  4. — AN  ATOM  OF  RADIUM 


ond.  Others,  on  the  contrary,  have  had  their 
momentum  impaired  by  collision,  and  as  a 
consequence  are  being  drawn  back  into  the 
system. 

In  Fig.  5  we  have  a  diagram  of  an  atom  of 
15 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

hydrogen.  It  contains,  let  us  say,  1,000 
electrons,  all  whirling  around  the  center  of 
the  system  with  velocities  inconceivably 
great. 

To  get  some  idea  of  the  dimensions  of  an 
electron,  picture  the  interior  of  St.  Peter's 
Church  at  Rome  filled  with  1,000  grams  of 
sand  darting  about  in  its  vast  interior.  All  is 
relative;  there  is  no  great,  there  is  no  small, 
and  so  we  may  say  that  the  spaces  between 
the  electrons  are  relatively  as  great  as  the  dis- 
tances between  the  planets  in  our  own  solar 
system.  If  we  take  the  weight  of  the  hydro- 
gen atom  as  1,  we  may  picture  the  interior 
filled  with  approximately  1,000  electrons.  The 
atomic  weight  of  carbon  is  12;  therefore  its 
atom  contains  12,000  electrons.  Mercury  has 
an  atomic  weight  of  200,  then  its  atom  con- 
tains 200,000  electrons,  etc.,  etc.  What  if  all 
this  should  turn  out  to  be  true?  Men  have 
been  dreaming  about  some  such  simple  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  from  the  earliest  times. 
Does  one  substance  differ  from  another  only  in 
16 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

the  number  of  electrons  which  its  atom  con- 
tains? 

There  is  something  here  more  stable  than 
a  hope,  a  dream,  a  guess,  for  the  recent  in- 
vestigations of  physicists  lead  us  to  believe 
that  when  the  truth  is  found  it  will  lie  not  far 
from  what  we  have  just  been  picturing.  You 
have  no  doubt  already  asked  yourself  the 
question:  What  becomes  of  the  hydrogen 
atom  after  it  has  lost  an  electron?  Assuming 
the  truth  of  what  has  been  said,  a  substance 
whose  atom  contains  999  electrons  cannot 
have  the  same  qualities  as  one  whose  atom 
contains  1,000.  Is  one  substance,  then, 
through  loss  of  electrons,  being  transformed 
into  another?  We  cannot  reply  definitely  to 
this  question,  but  we  are  justified  in  saying 
that  all  recent  experiments  tend  to  answer  the 
question  in  the  affirmative.  Establish  trans- 
mutation in  the  case  of  one  element,  and  we 
have  established  it  in  all,  since  we  cannot 
conceive  of  any  rupture  of  continuity  in  na- 
ture's processes.  That  transmutation  has  been 
17 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

established  in  the  case  of  three  or  four  ele- 
ments will  probably  be  admitted  by  the  ma- 
jority of  scientists,  but  the  reader  must  judge 
from  what  follows  whether  we  are  justified 


FIG.  5. — AN  ATOM  OF  HYDROGEN 

in  saying  that  all  substances  are  being  slowly 
transmuted. 

In  Fig.  5  we  have  an  atom  of  hydrogen  gas, 
and  have  pictured  it  as  filled  with  1,000  elec- 
trons, which  we  must  conceive  as  vortices  in 
18 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

the  ether,  and  possessing,  among  other  things, 
all  the  properties  of  negative  electricity.  We  call 
it  also  a  neutral  atom,  because  its  electrical 
appetite  appears  to  be  perfectly  satisfied.  The 
electron  theory  has  not  accounted  for  positive 
electricity,  has  not  enabled  us  to  isolate  a  posi- 
tive electron,  but  we  seem  justified  in  saying 
that  if  the  atom  is  made  up  of  electrons,  or 
vortices  of  negative  electricity,  and  the  elec- 
trical appetite  of  the  atom  is  satisfied,  then 
this  aggregation  of  electrons  must  be  bounded 
by  a  sphere  of  positive  electricity ;  but  whether 
lying  without  the  atom  or  within  the  atom, 
this  sphere  must  exactly  balance  the  contained 
electrons.  What  this  positive  electricity  is  we 
do  not  know,  nor  have  we  isolated  it,  save  in 
what  we  call  "ions,"  which  are  really  aggre- 
gations of  electrons.  Now,  suppose  an  electron 
speeding  at  110  thousand  miles  per  second 
should  come  in  contact  with  a  neutral  atom, 
the  electron  could  either  attach  itself  to  the 
neutral  mass,  or  displace  an  electron  from  the 
system.  In  the  former  case  we  have,  as 
19 


MATTER    AND    SOME 


the  result,  a  negative  ion,  as  in  Fig.  6,  and  in 
the  latter  a  positive  ion,  as  in  Fig.  7.  The 
diagrams  are  meant  simply  to  convey  the  idea 


FIG.  6. — A  NEGATIVE  ION 

that  in  one  case  there  is  a  defect,  and  in  the 
other  an  excess  of  electrons. 

Now,  bodies  which  emit  electrons  are  known 
as  radio-active.  The  radiations  are  of  three 
kinds,  and  are  distinguished  by  the  three 
Greek  letters  Alpha,  Beta,  Gamma.  The  beta 
radiations,  or  electrons,  which  we  have  just 
been  considering  are  to  be  found  not  only  in 
all  radio-active  substances,  but  in  the  Crookes' 
20 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

tube,  and  here  they  are  known  as  the  cathode 
rays.  The  alpha  radiations  are  the  positive 
ions,  and  are  giants  in  comparison  with  the 
electrons,  but  on  account  of  their  size  have 
very  little  penetrating  power  and  relatively 
slow  speed,  only  ten  to  twelve  thousand  miles 
per  second.  The  electrons,  on  the  other  hand, 
as  you  will  recall,  have  a  velocity  comparable 
with  that  of  light,  110,000  miles  per  second. 


FIG.  7. — A  POSITIVE  ION 

The  gamma  radiations  are  similar  to  the  "X- 

rays,"  and  move  with  the  velocity  of  light. 

In  addition  to  these  three  radiations,  radio- 

21 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

active  bodies  emit  an  emanation  which  has 
many  of  the  characteristics  of  a  gas,  since,  for 
example,  it  can  be  confined  in  a  glass  tube, 
can  be  condensed  by  liquid  air  at  a  tempera- 
ture of  — 150  degrees,  and  yet,  unlike  matter, 
at  certain  phases  of  its  evolution  it  wholly  dis- 
appears by  transforming  itself  into  electric 
particles. 

Here,  then,  we  have  established  the  fact 
that  nature  before  our  very  eyes  is  constantly 
changing  the  material  into  the  immaterial  and 
the  ponderable  into  the  imponderable.  Startling 
as  it  may  seem,  this  emanation  is  both  matter 
and  not  matter.  It  is  ponderable  and  im- 
ponderable, and  similar  substances  might  enter 
into  the  construction  of  those  bodies  which, 
for  want  of  a  better  name,  St.  Paul  once  de- 
scribed as  "spiritual."  The  significance  of 
this,  however,  will  appear  in  the  sequel.  But 
to  revert — substances  emitting  the  above-de- 
scribed radiations  and  emanations  would,  after 
a  time,  and,  just  as  we  should  expect,  undergo 
profound  modifications.  An  atom  of  hydrogen 
22 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

consisting  of  1,000  electrons  would,  at  the  loss 
of  one,  hardly  retain  the  same  characteristics 
as  formerly,  and  so  we  find  uranium  changing 
into  radium,  and  radium  into  emanation  and 
helium.  Professor  Rutherford  has  followed 
radium  through  the  following  marvelous 
changes.  In  the  first  column  we  find  the 
names  of  the  elements  into  which  radiun  is 
successively  transmuted,  and  in  the  second 
the  life  period  of  the  elements: 

Products  Period 

Radium 1,300  years. 

Emanation 3.8  days. 

Radium  A 3  minutes. 

"      B 26  minutes. 

"      C 19  minutes. 

"      D 40  years. 

"      E 6  days. 

"      F 143  days. 

The  results  of  Professor  Ramsay's  labors, 

however,  are  even  more  astonishing,  since  they 

appear  to  contradict  the  very  fundamentals  of 

modern  science  and  open  up  to  us  worlds  and 

23 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

possibilities  undreamed.  When  the  emanation 
of  radium  is  brought  into  contact  with  water 
the  former  is  transmuted  into  an  elemental 
gas,  neon.  When  brought  into  contact  with 
water  in  which  sulphate  of  copper  has  been  dis- 
solved, it  changes  into  argon.  But  the  changes 
in  the  water  and  in  the  solution  of  sulphate  of 
copper  are  even  more  startling,  for  in  the  for- 
mer we  find  an  excess  of  hydrogen  gas,  say  18  to 
20  per  cent.,  and  in  the  latter  there  are  found 
traces  of  sodium  and  lithium.  The  sodium 
might  result  from  the  decomposition  of  the 
walls  of  the  glass  tube  used  in  the  experiment, 
but  the  presence  of  the  lithium  can  be  account- 
ed for  only  on  the  supposition  that  there  had 
been  an  actual  transmutation  of  metals — a 
view  which,  we  have  seen,  opposes  official 
classical  teaching,  and  for  this  reason  will  be 
slow  in  obtaining  a  foothold,  for  in  this  change- 
ful world  the  only  changeless  thing  seems  to 
be  man's  antagonism  to  new  facts.  Turning 
back  to  Rutherford's  table,  we  find  that  the 
element  Radium  A  has  a  life  of  3  minutes,  and 
24 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

that  the  element  Radium  F  has  a  life  of  143 
days.  Perhaps  a  very  unscientific  way  of 
putting  it;  but  is  it  because  the  latter  supplies 
better  conditions  for  a  prolonged  existence  than 
the  former?  On  this  theory,  iron  and  hydro- 
gen would  be  considered  very  hardy  elements. 
The  environment  supplied  by  the  earth  to- 
day is  such  that  it  causes  but  a  slow  dissocia- 
tion of  their  atoms,  whereas,  in  the  case  of 
radium,  the  environment  is  so  unfavorable  as 
to  bring  about  a  decay  sufficiently  rapid  to  be 
detected  even  by  our  crude  instruments.  If 
the  idea  of  transmutation  of  metals  is  so  re- 
pugnant to  the  orthodox,  what  is  to  be  said 
of  that  vast  store  of  energy  locked  up  in  the 
atom  its,elf? — a  result  which  must  inevitably 
follow,  provided  our  former  assumptions  are 
correct.  For  the  past  decade  many  of  the 
most  advanced  physicists  have  been  profound- 
ly impressed  by  the  fact  that  matter  is  a  gi- 
gantic reservoir  of  energy.  An  English  scien- 
tist recently  stated  that  if  one  gram  of  radium 
could  be  instantly  and  completely  dissociated, 
3  25 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

it  would  unlock  sufficient  energy  to  throw  the 
whole  of  the  British  fleet  from  the  Channel 
to  the  top  of  Mt.  Blanc.  To  be  more  exact, 
let  us  take  the  lowest  velocity  at  which  the 
dissociated  particles  move  in  a  Crookes'  tube, 
say  10,000  kilometers  per  second,  and,  know- 
ing the  weight  of  the  particle,  an  elementary 
calculation  shows  the  amount  of  energy  lib- 
erated. The  work  done  by  a  moving  body  is 
equal  to  one-half  the  product  of  the  mass  by 
the  square  of  the  velocity.  Using  this  formula, 
we  find  that  one  gram  of  matter  instantly  and 
completely  dissociated  would  evolve  6,800,000 
horse-power. 

Rutherford  says  that  the  energy  manifested 
in  radio-active  bodies  is  perhaps  a  million 
times  greater  than  that  produced  by  the  vari- 
ous known  reactions  of  molecular  forces,  and 
again  "it  seems  probable  that  atomic  energy 
is  general,  and  of  equal  force  in  all  bodies"; 
in  other  words,  that  in  all  matter  there  is 
locked  up  this  enormous  store  of  energy.  This 
is  so  difficult  to  believe  that  Lord  Kelvin  him- 
26 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

self  may  be  pardoned  for  having  denied  it, 
though  he  knew  that  a  gram  of  hydrogen  gas 
by  electrolysis  sustained  a  charge  of  96,000 
coulombs  of  electricity,  and  that  1/120  of  this 
amount  sufficed  to  charge  a  globe  as  big  as 
the  world  with  6,000  volts.  Verily  this  was 
straining  at  a  gnat  and  swallowing  a  camel — 
to  admit  the  latter  and  to  deny  the  former. 
In  justice  to  him,  however,  it  should  be  said 
that  just  before  his  death  he  admitted  the 
truth  of  Le  Bon's  position,  viz.:  that  matter 
is  composed  only  of  condensed  energy  of  a 
special  node,  whence  results  its  weight,  its 
form,  and  its  fixity — electricity  being,  there- 
fore, only  one  of  the  manifestations  of  special 
energy  contained  in  the  atoms.  Not  the  least 
marvelous  property  of  matter  is  its  mobility. 
Apparently  stable,  yet  in  reality  infinitely  more 
sensitive  than  the  most  delicately  poised  ner- 
vous organism.  What  more  suggestive  of  inert- 
ness than  a  bar  of  steel,  yet  Professor  Tyndall, 
by  an  ingenious  arrangement  of  lever  and 
mirror,  has  shown  us  the  thrills  and  shivers  of 
27 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

its  molecules  when  the  source  of  heat  is  not 
greater  than  that  of  the  hand.  Under  the 
influence  of  the  heat  of  the  slightest  finger 
touch  the  bar  so  lengthens  that  a  beam  of 
light  falling  upon  its  mirror  attachment  will 
be  deflected  thirty  or  forty  degrees.  If  you 
wish  to  realize  how  mobile  matter  really  is, 
place  your  hand  near  an  air  or  mercury  ther- 
mometer and  note  the  result.  It  requires  no 
delicate  instrument  to  convince  you  that  it 
responds  instantly  to  its  environment.  Here 
is  a  block  of  lead,  for  example,  but,  looking 
deeper  into  its  nature,  we  see  that  it  is  a 
special  form  of  condensed  energy;  it  represents 
a  state  of  equilibrium  between  its  own  internal 
energy  and  the  energies  that  surround  it — 
heat,  pressure,  and  the  like.  The  slightest 
variation  of  heat  and  pressure  brings  about  a 
corresponding  variation  in  the  block  of  lead, 
and  that  the  element  appears  stable  is  due 
solely  to  the  fact  that  its  environment  is  stable. 
It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  a  very  slight 
relative  change  in  temperature  will  wholly 
28 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

change  the  appearance  of  lead,  first  into  a 
liquid,  then  into  a  gas,  and  with  yet  higher 
temperature  into  what?  There  appears  to  be 
but  one  answer  to  the  question — back  into 
the  ether  from  which  it  sprang. 

The  sensibility  of  an  organism  is  measured 
by  its  capacity  to  respond  to  stimulation. 
Probably  no  living  creature  will  be  affected 
by  a  change  of  environment  equal  to  1/10  of 
one  degree  Centigrade.  Yet  the  rise  or  fall 
of  1/100,000  of  one  degree  will  occasion  a  pro- 
found molecular  perturbation  in  the  platinum 
wire  of  the  bolometer.  In  common  with  the 
nervous  systems  of  higher  organisms,  matter 
has  a  wonderful  power  of  responding  to  elec- 
trical impulses,  but,  more  marvelous  still,  ac- 
cording to  Professor  Bose,  is  its  amenability 
to  fatigue  and  its  prompt  yielding  to  the 
effects  of  exciting  and  depressing  poisons. 
Just  in  proportion  as  we  try  to  get  at  the  true 
inwardness  of  matter,  so  does  our  respect  for 
it  increase;  and  perhaps  the  time  is  not  far 
distant  when  we  shall  cease  to  hear  the  term 
29 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

"brute  matter."  But,  strange  as  it  may  ap- 
pear, the  scientist  will  probably  be  the  last  to 
divorce  himself  from  the  old  preconceived  opin- 
ion. There  are,  of  course,  many  brilliant  ex- 
ceptions to  this  rule;  but  of  all  the  attributes 
of  the  human  mind,  those  which  characterize 
the  average  orthodox  scientist — the  man  who 
sees  the  world  only  through  the  medium  of  the 
microscope,  the  polariscope,  the  telescope,  or 
the  spectroscope — are  the  least  attractive.  In 
him,  more  than  all  others,  is  reflected  the 
truth  of  the  proposition  that  the  degree  of 
receptivity  of  men's  minds  to  new  facts  is  the 
only  invariable  thing  we  know.  With  him, 
scientific  dogmas  merit  the  same  superstitious 
reverence  as  the  gods  of  old;  with  him,  what 
opposes  classical  teaching  is  wholly  intolerable, 
and  with  a  deprecating  gesture  and  an  appeal 
to  common  sense  all  unpleasant  facts  are  rel- 
egated to  the  limbo  of  hopeless  phantasms. 
To  illustrate:  In  1823  P.  S.  Girard,  an  eminent 
French  engineer,  an  orthodox  scientist  and  a 
man  unusually  assiduous  in  his  devotions  at 
30 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

the  shrine  of  common  sense,  declared  that  it 
was  a  violation  of  that  faculty  to  believe  that 
all  Paris,  even  to  the  fifth  floor  of  her  resi- 
dences, could  be  furnished  with  water. 

Majendie  knew  surgical  anaesthesia  to  be 
impossible.  Dumas  was  convinced  that  the 
effort  to  separate  the  haemoglobin  of  the  blood 
was  wasted  effort.  Pasteur,  great  as  he  was, 
believed  that  substances  possessing  asymmet- 
ric molecules  could  never  be  created  by  syn- 
thesis, and  an  appeal  to  common  sense  would 
have  justified  one  twenty  years  ago  in  assert- 
ing that  the  transverse  apophyses  of  the  verte- 
brae would  never  be  photographed  (which  with 
the  X-rays  now  is  an  e very-day  occurrence). 
But  an  appeal  to  common  sense  is  hazardous, 
since  the  standard  of  common  sense  is  chang- 
ing from  day  to  day,  and,  at  best,  it  is  not  an 
infallible  guide,  since  it  is  but  the  opinion  of 
the  majority  on  familiar  facts,  who  accept  the 
facts  simply  because  they  are  familiar,  without 
in  the  least  understanding  them.  It  seems 
palpably  false  to  say  that  the  majority  are 
31 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

always  wrong  until  they  come  to  accept  the 
opinions  of  a  very  small  minority,  and  yet  this 
is  self-evident,  for  truth  first  dawns  upon  the 
mind  of  some  genius  a  century  or  two  before 
his  age,  and  then  slowly  and  painfully  through 
the  succeeding  years  this  truth  is  finding  lodg- 
ment in  the  minds  of  the  majority.  Innumer- 
able instances  could  be  given,  but  two  will 
suffice — Ohm  and  Mayer.  The  former  im- 
mortalized his  name  by  the  discovery  of  the 
laws  which  underlie  the  modern  science  of  elec- 
tricity. In  a  clever  little  book  he  describes 
the  simple  experiments  that  led  him  to  formu- 
late his  great  generalizations.  Instead  of  veri- 
fying these  experiments,  well  within  the  power 
of  all  teachers  of  that  day,  scientists  denied 
them,  and  covered  them  with  such  ridicule 
that  he  lost  his  berth  at  his  University,  and, 
to  avoid  starvation,  accepted  a  position  in 
some  minor  institution  at  the  munificent  salary 
of  $250  per  annum.  Mayer  was  decidedly  the 
first  in  his  field,  and  did  more  than  any  other 
man  to  raise  the  dogma  of  the  conservation  of 
32 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

energy  to  the  dignity  of  a  great  natural  law. 
His  efforts  were  not  only  unsupported  and  un- 
appreciated, but  he  was  ridiculed,  persecuted, 
neglected,  and  forgotten.  So  completely  was 
his  great  work  ignored  that  when  Helmholtz, 
later  and  independently,  made  the  same  dis- 
covery, he  was  astonished  to  find  that  he  had 
been  anticipated  by  many  years.  Few  realize 
that  Helmholtz's  work  along  these  lines  met 
with  the  same  indifference,  and  that  many 
reputable  scientific  papers  of  Germany  refused 
to  publish  some  of  his  most  valuable  contribu- 
tions. The  same  attitude  obtains  to-day,  and 
hence  the  theory  that  matter  is  a  reservoir  of 
force  will  have  a  thorny  path  to  travel.  As- 
suming as  true  the  proposition  that  matter  is 
a  reservoir  of  energy,  and  that  the  basis  of 
matter  is  the  electron,  which  is  a  stress  or 
vortex  in  the  ether,  are  we  not  justified  in  the 
assertion  that  we  can  not  conceive  of  this 
gigantic  stress  without  a  personality  of  some 
kind  exerting  it,  and  hence  that  it  is  literally 
true  that  in  the  body  or  mind  of  some  great 
33 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

Being  all  things  do  live,  move,  and  have  their 
being?  Matter  is  solely  a  manifestation  of 
force.  Try  to  divorce  "force"  from  its  psy- 
chical significance.  You  can  not  do  it,  for 
men  have  always  realized  that  force  connotes 
a  Conscious  Will,  a  sustained,  directing,  in- 
telligent effort,  which  even  Schopenhauer  would 
have  called  the  Will  of  God,  or  the  Soul  of 
the  Universe.  "This,"  says  the  pragmatist, 
"smacks  of  mysticism";  but  so  at  one  time 
"free  thinking"  was  of  evil  omen.  All  men 
are  mystics  save  those  to  whom  things  are 
what  they  seem.  Matter,  then,  is  a  projec- 
tion from  a  spiritual  plane,  and  since  modern 
science  tends  to  confirm  that  view,  it  must 
profoundly  modify  the  conceptions  of  the 
religion  and  philosophy  of  the  future,  and 
give  new  life  and  hope  to  those  who  cling  to 
the  old-time  views  of  the  existence  of  a  loving 
Father  who  holds  all  things  in  the  hollow  of 
His  hand. 

We  have  now  reached  a  point  in  the  develop- 
ment of  our  study  so  difficult  to  grasp  that 
34 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

some  will  probably  turn  back  in  despair — it 
is  the  point  at  which  we  must  throw  some  kind 
of  a  bridge  over  the  yawning  chasm  that  sepa- 
rates the  physical  from  the  superphysical.  In 
the  material  for  the  construction  of  such  a 
bridge  we  can  hardly  expect  to  find  convincing 
logic  in  abundance.  On  the  contrary,  the  ma- 
terial must,  to  a  great  or  less  extent,  be  com- 
posed of  postulates  which  to  a  majority  of 
minds  will  appear  as  self-evident  truths. 
Such  a  truth  the  writer  assumes  is  embodied 
in  the  proposition  that  behind  the  forces  of 
the  physical  world  there  exists  an  absolute 
Will  governed  by  an  intelligence  compassing 
all  that  is  and  is  to  be.  Granted  the  postulate 
of  an  Intelligent  Motive  Power  behind  the 
movements  in  physical  nature,  we  know  that 
somewhere  must  be  a  locus  in  which  that  power 
is  applied.  Whether  we  have  discovered  and 
explored,  or  even  touched,  that  region  is  a 
question  which  the  reader  must  determine  for 
himself.  The  value  of  the  present  study,  if 
value  it  have,  consists  in  this,  that  it  has 
35 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

brought  physical  investigations  to  the  point 
where  a  junction  with  the  metaphysical  prov- 
ince can  be  made  without  a  strain  upon  prob- 
abilities, and  where,  in  fact,  many  phenomena 
hitherto  anomalous  or  inexplicable  readily  fall 
into  line  with  the  trend  of  the  hypothesis. 
Without  further  apology,  then,  we  shall  pro- 
ceed to  the  description  of  some  phases  of  mind 
and  matter  which  suggest  the  existence  of 
worlds  and  universes  other  than  those  acknowl- 
edged by  the  materialistic  scientist. 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 


CHAPTER   II 

T  ET  us  again  picture  the  universe  filled  with 
•*— '  a  perfectly  transparent  jelly  -  like  mass 
which  we  will  call  the  ether.  Matter  has  not 
yet  begun  to  appear,  nor  can  it  appear  till 
the  ether  is  differentiated.  Is  there  any  con- 
ceivable way  in  which  ultimate  particles  may 
be  formed  in  this  apparently  perfectly  homo- 
geneous substance?  A  resort  to  analogy  will 
aid  us  materially.  Imagine  yourself  imbedded 
in  an  absolutely  transparent  block  of  glass. 
Now  conceive  a  strain,  or  stress,  extending 
through  the  glass  from  side  to  side,  and,  as  the 
result  of  this  strain,  the  glass  will  be  filled  with 
exceedingly  minute  nodules,  or  points  of  frac- 
ture, which,  of  course,  will  be  visible.  Such  a 
phenomenon  would  be  striking  in  the  extreme, 
and  you  would  be  tempted  to  exclaim:  Behold, 
37 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

Materialization!  out  of  the  Invisible  comes  the 
Visible!  out  of  the  unknown  comes  the  known! 
we  see  the  things  coming  forth  from  the  things 
that  do  not  appear.  Now,  suppose  this  strain 
were  relaxed,  the  glass,  by  reason  of  its  elas- 
ticity, would  resume  its  former  condition  of 
transparency,  and  you  would  say:  Behold, 
Dematerialization !  In  some  such  way  all 
things  in  the  universe  could  be  maintained  in 
the  great  mass  of  ether  by  the  will  or  thought 
of  an  All-Sustainer,  but  let  that  Will  even  for 
a  moment  be  relaxed,  and  all  things  would  re- 
solve into  nothingness.  Is  it  not  now  in- 
telligible how  matter  might  be  simply  a  mani- 
festation of  force?  Recall  the  block  of  glass, 
the  strain  and  the  result  of  the  strain,  the  fine 
nodules,  and  hence  matter  suddenly  appearing 
in  the  invisible  glass.  Or  think  of  a  tornado 
which  has  entity  sufficient  to  be  seen  and  felt, 
and  yet  is  but  a  strain  or  stress  in  the  invis- 
ible atmosphere.  To  strain  the  air  requires 
the  expenditure  of  energy,  but  to  stress  the 
ether  immeasurably  more  energy  is  necessary, 
38 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

because  the  rigidity  of  the  ether  is  almost  im- 
measurably greater  than  that  of  the  atmos- 
phere. The  following  illustration  by  Professor 
Cooke  will  enable  us  to  gain  some  idea  of 
the  rigidity  and  density  of  the  ether.  "The 
rapidity  with  which  wave  motion  moves 
through  any  medium  depends,  other  things 
being  equal,  upon  the  elasticity  of  the  medium. 
Now  conceive  two  media  to  be  of  the  same 
density,  their  elasticities  will  be  proportional 
to  the  squares  of  the  velocities  with  which  the 
motion  moves.  Sound  travels  at  the  rate  of 
1,100  feet  per  second;  light,  as  wave  motion 
in  the  ether,  at  185,000  miles  per  second,  or 
say  1,000,000  times  faster.  Now  suppose  the 
ether  were  the  same  weight  as  the  atmosphere, 
1/3  of  a  grain  to  the  cubic  inch,  its  elasticity, 
or  power  of  resisting  pressure,  would  be,  ac- 
cording to  the  rule,  1, 000,000 2  times  greater. 
But  as  the  capacity  to  resist  pressure  on  the 
part  of  the  air  is  fifteen  pounds  per  square  inch, 
that  of  the  ether  would  be  1,000,000  2  times 
15,  or  15,000,000,000,000  pounds.  Such  figures 
39 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

convey  nothing  to  the  mind  save  that  of  vast 
magnitude,  but  to  bring  it  nearer  within  the 
grasp  of  the  intellect  let  us  take  a  syringe  one 
inch  in  area,  and  imagine  it  ether-tight  (such 
a  supposition  is  an  absurdity,  but  for  the  sake 
of  argument  let  us  conceive  it  as  ether-tight), 
what  weight  on  the  head  of  the  piston  would  be 
necessary  to  drive  the  confined  ether  down  to 
the  density  of  the  air  of  any  ordinary  room? 
"One  cubic  mile  of  granite  would  hardly  suf- 
fice, and  yet  the  ether  is  so  tenuous  that  the 
earth  speeding  around  the  sun  at  the  rate  of 
nearly  nineteen  miles  per  second  suffers  no 
perceptible  retardation,  though  it  has  a  density 
in  proportion  to  its  elasticity  a  million  times  a 
million  greater  than  air."  Now  the  mind  is 
staggered  by  the  effort  to  picture  the  power 
necessary  to  maintain  a  vortex  motion  (which 
may  be  likened  to  the  fine  nodule  in  the  glass) 
in  a  substance  so  inconceivably  rigid  as  the 
ether. 

Yet  an  electron  is  but  a  vortex,  and  all  sub- 
stances are  built  up  of  electrons.     One  gram  of 
40 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

hydrogen  gas  (15  1/2  grains)  means  6,800,000 
horse-power  stress  in  the  ether.  But  mathe- 
maticians tell  us  that  a  perfectly  homogeneous 
substance,  such  as  we  have  supposed  the  ether 
to  be,  could  not  withstand  such  a  pressure  as 
a  cubic  mile  of  granite  and  retain  the  exceed- 
ing slight  density  that  the  theory  demands. 
They  calculate,  however,  that  a  structural 
ether  would  satisfy  the  requirements.1  An 
ether  made  up  of  five  other  ethers  of  varying 
densities  would,  they  assure  us,  be  capable  of 
withstanding  such  a  pressure,  and  still  retain 
the  density  which  theory  demands,  viz.; 
about  that  of  the  atmosphere,  under  normal 
conditions.  So,  instead  of  conceiving,  as  we 
have  heretofore  done,  a  universe  filled  with  a 
perfectly  homogeneous  ether,  we  picture  it  as 


1  The  early,  imperfect  telescopes  showed  a  plain  ring 
around  the  planet  Saturn.  Mathematicians  predicted 
what  later  and  more  perfect  instruments  revealed,  viz., 
concentric  rings,  composed  of  particles  of  varying 
density — such  were  necessary  to  give  the  ring  sufficient 
stability  to  maintain  its  form.  Heterogeneity  in  a 
motion  of  this  kind  tends  to  stability. 

4  41 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

filled  with  five  ethers  of  varying  densities.  A 
vortex  motion  in  such  a  substance  would  as- 
sume the  appearance  suggested  by  the  frontis- 
piece. The  ether  whose  particles  are  heaviest 
will  revolve  farthest  from  the  center,  as  at  1; 
lighter  particles  would  assume  the  position  of 
ring  2,  and  the  lightest  would  revolve  nearest 
to  the  center  of  the  system,  as  at  5.  Ring  1 
is  the  electron  to  which  we  have  already  been 
introduced,  and  from  which  all  bodies  are  built 
up,  and  as  this  ring,  or  vortex,  contains  five 
rings  of  varying  densities,  we  may  say  that 
every  human  body  has  the  potentiality  of  other 
bodies,  or  existences,  or  forms,  or  dimensions. 
Every  organ  of  the  body,  the  brain,  heart,  leg, 
and  arm,  for  example,  have  their  exact  counter- 
parts in  ethers  1,  2,  3,  4,  and  5.  This  being 
true,  we  should  expect  that  man,  sometimes 
at  least,  would  discover  within  himself  traces 
of  another  personality,  or  intelligence;  and  so, 
indeed,  he  does,  as  will  appear  in  the  sequel. 
Now  the  outer  ring,  or  the  electrons  of  physical 
science,  is  the  material  plane;  it  is  the  three- 
42 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

dimension  plane — it  is  the  plane  where  condi- 
tions may  best  be  described  by  the  terms 
length,  breadth,  and  thickness.  But  suppose 
that  in  some  way  a  man  could  divorce  himself 
from  this  outer  ring,  would  he  not  stand  forth 
on  the  plane  of  the  second  ring,  the  electron 
of  the  metaphysician?  In  casting  off  the  outer 
ring  he  would  eliminate  only  those  charac- 
teristics of  himself  which  might  be  described 
by  the  terms  length,  breadth,  and  thickness, 
obviously  the  least  important  part  of  himself. 
We  never  estimate  a  man's  worth  by  the  quali- 
ties which  inhere  in  the  physical  electrons,  for 
only  length,  breadth,  and  thickness,  and,  as 
we  shall  see  later,  time  and  space,  reside  there- 
in; and  all  of  us  unconsciously  confirm  this 
view  of  the  matter  when,  as  the  portals  of  the 
mad-house  swing  open,  or  as  the  body  is  low- 
ered into  the  grave,  we  recall  of  the  beloved 
departed  only  those  qualities  which  obtain  in 
the  second  ring,  or  in  the  electron  of  the 
metaphysician.  What  is  death,  then,  but  the 
shedding  of  this  outer  ring,  leaving  its  pos- 
43 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

sessor  on  a  different  plane — leaving  him  with 
a  body  composed  of  finer  ether,  but  unaltered 
in  every  other  respect;  leaving  him  with  a 
body  which  St.  Paul  described  as  "spiritual," 
with  a  body  which  since  it  is  composed  of 
finer  ether,  might  conceivably  pass  through 
substances  composed  of  the  coarser  ether  of 
the  outer  ring?  For  if  tradition  is  to  be  be- 
lieved, the  spiritual  body  of  the  great  Jewish 
Lawgiver  passed  through  the  walls  of  a  room 
in  which  His  disciples  were  breaking  bread; 
and  if  recent  reports  are  to  be  credited,  in  the 
seance  rooms  of  modern  times  incidents  have 
been  recorded,  under  test  conditions,  which 
strikingly  resemble  those  set  forth  in  the 
sacred  texts. 

The  foregoing  suggests  not  only  the  concept 
of  universes  within  universes,  but  it  affords  a 
physical  basis  for  that  faith  which  has  domi- 
nated the  learned  of  the  East  for  countless 
generations — a  faith  the  salient  points  of  which 
have  been  briefly  set  forth  by  a  modern  writer 
in  the  following  language:  "In  each  of  the 
44 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

worlds  through  which  man  passes  he  is  de- 
luded by  the  spirit  of  that  world,  and  lives  in 
its  illusions.  From  these  he  awakens  only  to 
pass  through  an  analogous  process  in  the  world 
next  beyond.  Many  worlds  must  be  passed 
through,  many  illusions  and  delusions  per- 
ceived and  lived  through  before  that  conscious 
something  which  a  man  calls  himself  shall  find 
itself  in  its  native  world,  and  learn  to  know 
itself  in  that  world  in  a  fuller  degree  than  it 
now  knows  itself  in  this  world.  That  con- 
scious something  which  a  man  call  himself  has 
an  instrument,  a  physical  body,  which  is  of 
the  matter  and  nature  of  the  world  in  which 
he  lives.  For  a  man  to  live  in  the  five  worlds 
he  must  have  as  many  bodies  as  there  are 
worlds,  each  body  being  of  the  nature  and 
matter  of  the  world  to  which  it  belongs,  that 
he  may  contact  each  world  and  have  that 
world  react  in  him." 

Practically  the  same  thoughts  have  filled  the 
mind  of  the  poet.  Hear  Stephen  Philip,  in 
"  Herod": 

45 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

"I  tell  you  we  are  fooled   by  the  eye  and   the 

ear, 
These  organs  doth  muffle  us  from  the  true  world 

which  lies  about  us, 
The  eye  and  the  ear  doth  make  us  deaf  and 

blind, 
Else  we  should  be  aware  of  all  our  dead  that  pass 

above  us,  through  us,  and  beneath  us." 

This  conception  of  the  ether  as  a  heteroge- 
neous instead  of  a  homogeneous  substance  is 
destined  to  prove  valuable  even  in  the  hands 
of  the  materialistic  philosopher,  as  evidenced 
by  the  following  quotation  from  the  recent 
address  of  a  gentleman  of  international  repu- 
tion  in  the  scientific  world. 

"The  existence  within  our  world  of  other 
worlds  more  tenuous  than  our  own  implies 
the  existence  within  that  of  others  more 
tenuous  still,  and  within  that  another  and 
another,  on  and  on  in  endless  evolution,  the 
atom  of  one  tenuity  being  ever  the  gateway  of 
the  next,  a  mutiplex  composed  of  finer  atoms. 
So  that  what  we  call  the  ether  is  in  reality  an 
46 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

infinite  reach  of  successive  tenuities  of  sub- 
stance." 

The  acquaintance  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  with 
the  potentialities  of  the  material  of  the  second 
ring  makes  Him  speak  as  a  biologist.  He 
constantly  refers  to  seed,  to  birth,  to  growth, 
and  to  development.  Potently  delicate,  in- 
deed, is  this  finer  ether  that  lies  within  us,  since 
it  can  be  molded  into  a  body  so  tenacious  that 
corporal  death  cannot  break  it  down,  and  so 
naturally  He  tells  us  that  anything  less  than 
a  life  for  others  utterly  destroys  it.  The 
wages  of  sin,  He  says,  is  death;  and  probably 
no  greater  scientific  truth  was  ever  enunciated. 
Let  a  man  live  a  life  for  others;  let  him  value 
the  moral  personality  more  than  the  physical, 
and  he  has  acquired  an  individuality  which, 
since  it  cannot  be  propagated  by  cell  division, 
cannot  be  destroyed  by  cell  dissolution.  On 
the  contrary,  let  him  lead  an  essentially  selfish 
life,  and  he  acquires  no  other  individuality 
than  that  which  can  be  propagated  by  cell  di- 
vision and  hence  which  can  not  withstand  cell 
47 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

dissolution.  All  men  have  the  potentiality  of 
this  psychic  body,  which  develops  within  the 
physical  body,  as  long  as  the  conditions  of 
development  are  supplied,  and  in  a  few  cases 
no  doubt  the  dissolution  of  its  physical  in- 
vestiture is  felt  actually  as  a  relief.  But  in  a 
vast  number  of  cases  (as  we  are  to  infer  from 
the  declaration  of  Jesus  that  many  are  called 
and  few  are  chosen),  death  would  end  all,  since 
many  have  acquired  no  other  individuality 
than  that  which  is  propagated  by  cell  division. 
It  requires  no  stretch  of  the  imagination  to 
grasp  this  fact.  If  man  is  built  up  of  electrons, 
which  are  whirls  in  ethers  of  varying  densities, 
then  he  has  the  potentiality  of  as  many  exist- 
ences as  there  are  ethers.  Now  mathemati- 
cians, as  we  have  said,  assume  that  there  must 
be  several,  perhaps  five;  but  suppose  they  are 
infinite — and  it  is  inconceivable  that  they  are 
limited — we  have  at  least  conceived  a  method, 
and  a  very  orderly  one,  by  which  man  can 
evolve  for  all  time,  existing  in  each  ring,  or 
plane,  or  dimension  of  matter  as  long  as  he 
48 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

supplies  the  conditions  of  existence,  then  pass- 
ing on  to  the  next,  as  we  do  in  our  physical 
death.  The  only  shocking  element  in  the  con- 
cept is  that  it  places  man  so  low  in  the  scale 
of  existence — almost  at  the  very  foot  of  the 
ladder. 


MATTER    AND    SOME 


TIME  AND  SPACE 

T  1  7"E  now  approach  the  subject  of  time  and 
*  *  space,  the  absence  of  which  seems  to  be 
a  characteristic  of  that  which  moves  on  the 
plane  of  the  second  ring,  or,  if  you  please,  of 
that  which  is  built  up  of  the  electrons  of  the 
metaphysician.  They  are  a  subject  by  them- 
selves, and  though  hundreds  of  volumes  have 
been  written  in  explanation,  the  ordinary  man 
who  reads  remains  yet  hopelessly  confused. 
Still  it  is  possible  to  imagine,  analogically,  a 
condition  of  space  other  than  that  which  we 
have  actually  experienced.  It  does  not  avail 
us  anything  to  take  refuge  behind  the  ex- 
pression—  it  is  inconceivable.  Infinity,  for 
example,  is  absolutely  inconceivable,  yet  we 
know  that  it  exists.  An  infinity  before  us  and 
an  infinity  behind  us  are  beyond  the  power 
50 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

of  the  mind  to  grasp,  yet  we  know  that  they 
exist,  and  that  they  are  as  great  truths  as  any 
ever  presented  to  the  mind  of  man.  Though 
as  difficult  to  grasp  as  infinity  itself,  men  for 
ages  have  recognized  the  necessity  for  the 
existence  of  another  dimension  in  space,  for 
without  it  many  phenomena  are  wholly  inex- 
plicable. Some  reject  it  on  the  score  of  in- 
conceivability, but  logically  they  would  have 
to  reject  infinity  for  the  same  reason.  We 
can  not  comprehend  a  fourth  dimension,  but 
analogy  will  aid  in  the  effort  to  grasp  the  idea. 


Let  A,  B,  C,  and  D  represent  lineal  dimensions 
in  space.     A  and  B  would  give  us  a  figure 

thus — 


A 


And  an  organism  capable  of  moving  only  in 

the  directions  A  and  B  we  should  call  a  two- 

51 


MATTER    AND    SOME 


dimensional   organism,    or   being.     A,    B,    C, 
would  give  us  a  solid  thus — 


Bodies  capable  of  moving  in  the  directions 
A,  B,  C,  we  should  call  three  dimensional,  such, 
for  example,  as  our  own  bodies,  and  all  sub- 
stances that,  under  ordinary  circumstances, 
we  can  see,  feel,  and  hear.  But  since  A,  B,  C, 
D,  from  the  standpoint  of  geometry,  would 
represent  something  that  can  not  be  conceived, 
we  must  here  resort  to  analogy.  We  may 
conceive  an  organism  capable  of  moving  only 
in  the  direction  indicated  by  the  line  A, 
and  we  should  call  it  one  dimensional.  An 
organism  capable  of  moving  in  the  directions 
of  B  and  C  would  inhabit  a  flat-land,  figura- 
tively and  literally,  and  the  entrance  therein 
of  a  three-dimensional  body  would  appear  to 
52 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

the  inhabitants  thereof  as  an  astounding  mira- 
cle, since  to  become  invisible  to  the  denizens 
of  this  world  a  three-dimensional  body  such 
as  ourselves  would  have  to  move  only  up  or 
down.  The  reader  will  see  at  a  glance  that 
the  flat-lander  is  capable  of  seeing  only  in  one 
plane,  and  that  to  him  an  object  would  become 
visible  or  invisible  as  it  was  moved  within  or 
without  that  plane.  "In  what  way,"  will  be 
asked,  "does  this  aid  us  to  grasp  the  idea  of  a 
fourth  dimension?"  Fix  well  in  mind  the 
position  of  the  flat-lander  who  is  regarding  the 
entrance  of  a  three-dimensional  body  into  his 
world,  and  ask  yourself  the  question,  "What 
manifestations  in  this  world  are  analogous  to 
the  entrance  of  a  three-dimensional  body  into 
a  two-dimensional  world?"  Only  in  this  way 
can  we  conceive  of  a  fourth-dimensional  body. 
And  in  this  connection  let  us  read  a  passage 
from  a  pamphlet  written  by  A.  C.  Taylor,  a 
very  practical  English  civil  engineer: 

"Suppose  that  a  cone  enters  flat-land  point 
first   and   obliquely.     Its  first   manifestations 
53 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

will  be  a  point;  afterward  a  very  small  ellipse 
will  be  formed,  which  will  grow  larger  and 
larger.  The  superfices  will  be  formed  of  ever- 
changing  sections  of  atoms  of  which  the  cone 
is  formed.  In  this  we  see  an  analogy  to 
growth  generally  in  this  world.  If  the  cone 
was  not  strictly  homogeneous — say  if  it  was 
of  sandstone  or  steel — the  changes  in  the  super- 
fices would  be  of  a  wonderful,  mysterious  char- 
acter, somewhat  analogous  to  chemical  changes 
in  this  world. . 

"If  this  solid  body  were  a  living  one  it  would 
be  made  manifest  by  sections  of  ever-changing 
living  cells;  and  we  can  imagine  such  sections 
to  represent  two-dimensional  cellular  life.  The 
sections  of  a  solid  body,  such  as  a  hand,  might 
result  in  several  two-dimensional  figures.  The 
conception  that  these  were  in  any  way  con- 
nected would  be  very  difficult  to  the  inhabi- 
tants of  flat -land.  Certain  shaped  solids 
would  result  in  sections  which  gradually 
merged  one  in  the  other,  or  in  a  section  which 
gradually  became  segmented  in  several  parts. 
54 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

There  is  some  analogy  between  this  and  re- 
production in  this  world.  Let  us  now  turn  to 
this  world  and  imagine  how,  analogically, 
fourth-dimensional  bodies  would  be  likely  to 
manifest  themselves  here.  It  would  appear 
that  a  fourth-dimensional  body  passing  through 
this  world  would  manifest  itself  in  the  form  of 
a  solid,  varying  in  shape,  size,  and  constitution. 
Vegetable  and  animal  life  and  chemical  changes 
are  of  this  character,  and  are  therefore  pos- 
sible manifestations  of  fourth-dimensional  ac- 
tivities. Viewing  human  life  from  this  stand- 
point, the  conclusion  may  be  reached  that  I, 
as  I  write  this,  am  merely  that  section  of  my 
fourth-dimensional  self  that  happens  to  be 
passing  through  this  world  at  this  moment, 
and  that  the  whole  of  me,  from  my  birth  to 
my  death,  is  a  fourth-dimensional  entity;  that 
the  past  and  the  future  are  past  and  future 
only  in  a  three-dimensional  sense,  and  that  in 
a  fourth-dimensional  sense  the  past  and  fu- 
tures are  present — that  is,  both  what  was  and 
will  be  is." 

55 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

Again  we  quote  from  the  same  author: 
"Our  conception  of  time  is  due  merely  to 
the  periodicity  which  exists  in  nature  in  the 
alternations  of  day  and  night,  winter  and  sum- 
mer, in  the  swing  of  the  pendulum,  etc.  It  is 
merely  a  coincidence  that  duration  corresponds 
generally  with  time  periods,  a  coincidence  due 
to  the  fact  that  our  subjective  sense  of  dura- 
tion depends  primarily  on  the  periodicity  of 
our  heart-beats.  That  there  are  other  factors 
on  which  duration  depends  is  a  fact  that  we 
have  all  experienced,  but  it  seems  probable 
that  these  other  factors  are  also  due  to  some 
form  of  periodicity,  possibly  of  nerve  functions. 
If  we  were  in  a  condition  where  we  felt  no 
bodily  pulsations,  where  we  saw,  heard,  and 
felt  no  alternating  differences,  I  believe  there 
would  be  no  sense  of  duration,  and  an  infinity 
would  be  the  same  as  a  second.  Rhythm  is  the 
most  universal  feature  of  our  universe  from 
the  highest  to  the  lowest,  from  the  simplest 
to  the  most  abstruse  detail  that  we  are  ac- 
quainted with.  But  rhythm  may  be  a  pe- 
56 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

culiarity  of  three-dimensional  matter  only,  and 
it  is  possible  that  time,  therefore,  has  no 
analogue  in  a  fourth  or  a  higher  dimension." 
In  other  words,  that  only  on  the  plane  of  the 
first  ring  are  we  conscious  of  time  and  space 
relations. 

We  are  told  again  that  the  clearest  con- 
ception of  a  fourth  dimension  may  be  reached 
by  thinking  of  it  in  connection  with  the  non- 
existence  of  time  and  space.  As  the  first  step 
in  the  process,  let  us  try  to  conceive  the  crea- 
tive principle  as  pure  thought,  and  not  as  con- 
crete form,  and  in  so  conceiving  it  we  have 
pictured  it  as  existing  devoid  of  its  time  or 
space  elements.  This  is  relatively  easy  to  do. 
Next  try  to  conceive  anything  as  existing  di- 
vorced from  its  time  and  space  relations,  and 
we  conceive  it  necessarily  as  existing  in  the 
active  present,  here  and  now;  in  fact,  in  a 
"universal  here  and  an  everlasting  now." 
The  antithesis  of  this  is  the  conception  of 
things  as  expressing  themselves  through  the 
conditions  of  time  and  space,  thereby  estab- 

5  57 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

lishing  a  vast  variety  of  relations  with  other 
things,  such  as  volume,  distance,  sequence  of 
time,  etc.,  etc.  The  first  is  the  conception  of 
the  extreme  idealist;  the  second  is  that  of  the 
extreme  materialist.  The  mistake  of  the  first 
lies  in  this,  that  he  is  trying  to  establish  an 
entity  with  the  abstract  alone.  The  mistake 
of  the  second  is  that  he  is  trying  to  do  the 
same  thing  by  considering  the  concrete  alone. 
It  is  clear,  however,  that  only  by  combining 
the  two  can  we  reach  that  for  which  we  are 
striving,  viz.:  reality.  In  other  words,  the 
materialist  tries  to  conceive  of  man  on  the 
plane  of  the  outer  ring  alone  (the  concrete), 
the  idealist  on  the  plane  of  the  inner  ring  alone 
(the  abstract) ;  but  as  man  is  composed  of  the 
outer  ring,  and  all  that  that  contains,  clearly 
the  effort  to  regard  him  from  the  standpoint  of 
any  single  ring  or  plane  would  be  as  unsatis- 
factory as  viewing  a  part  for  the  whole.  Noth- 
ing is  surer  than  that  time  and  space  exist, 
but  they  exist  for  the  three-dimensional, 
physical  brain  only.  The  brain  of  the  fourth- 
58 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

dimensional  body,  however,  does  not  recognize 
time  and  space,  and  sees  in  matter  only  the 
ultimates  thereof;  recognizes,  for  example, 
that  the  electron,  from  which  all  matter  is  con- 
structed, is  simply  the  expression  of  an  All- 
Sustainer's  will  or  thought,  which,  as  we  have 
seen  above,  is  relatively  easy  to  conceive  as 
divorced  from  concrete  form.  In  other  words, 
that  time,  in  the  sense  in  which  we  use  the 
word,  exists  only  for  those  on  a  three-dimen- 
sional plane;  and  this  view  is  almost  invariably 
confirmed  by  the  experience  of  those  who  have 
been  able,  even  to  a  slight  extent,  to  eliminate 
their  physical  selves.  It  is  a  significant  fact 
that  all  the  mystics  and  all  the  founders  of 
great  systems  of  religion  and  morals  have 
evinced  a  singular  facility  for  mixing  their 
tenses.  Jesus  himself  is  not  exempt,  since  he 
declared  that  "before  Abraham  was,  I  am." 
So  much,  then,  for  this  entity  which,  for  want 
of  a  better  name,  we  call  the  fourth-dimensional 
body,  or  the  body  of  the  second  ring.  One  of 
the  characteristics  of  the  ether  which  enters 
59 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

into  the  first  ring  is  that  it  assumes  forms  or 
dimensions  which  may  be  described  by  the 
terms  length,  breadth,  and  thickness;  in  other 
words,  that  the  substance  of  the  first  ring  is 
material.  The  form  or  dimension  assumed  by 
the  ether  composing  the  second  ring  can  not 
be  described  by  the  terms  length,  breadth,  and 
thickness;  that  is,  it  is  immaterial.  The  first 
ponderable,  the  second  imponderable;  the 
first  ring  has  the  properties  of  matter,  the 
second  has  not.  Suoh  a  supposition  is  by  no 
means  a  scientific  absurdity,  since  we  have 
seen  that  the  emanations  of  radium  possess 
properties  that  lie  between  the  ponderable  and 
the  imponderable. 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 


DUAL  MENTALITY 

TT  might  be  denied  that  man  possesses  two 
-*-  bodies,  but  that  he  possesses  a  dual  mentality 
is  practically  universally  admitted.  The  seat 
of  intelligence  of  the  physical  body,  or  the 
body  of  the  first  ring,  is  the  physical  brain. 
But  where  are  we  to  look  for  the  seat  of  in- 
telligence of  the  fourth  -  dimensional  body? 
Suppose  we  place  a  subject  in  a  state  of  deep 
hypnosis,  so  deep  as  to  be  insensible  to  pain, 
even  though  we  should  plunge  a  white-hot 
needle  into  the  flesh,  his  physical  body  is  cer- 
tainly not  alive  in  the  scientific  sense,  since 
it  does  not  respond  to  stimulation.  Under 
such  circumstances  a  surgical  operation  might 
be  performed  on  the  most  sensitive  portions  of 
the  brain  itself,  and  the  subject  would  be  none 
the  wiser,  so  far  as  sensation  is  concerned. 
61 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

But  new  powers  and  functions  are  brought 
into  being  exactly  in  proportion  as  the  third- 
dimensional  faculties  are  held  in  abeyance, 
faculties  and  functions  that  far  transcend  those 
of  ordinary  consciousness.  Give  a  subject 
under  these  circumstances,  perfectly  dead  to 
physical  surroundings,  a  premise  of  any  char- 
acter, and  he  will  invariably  draw  the  correct 
conclusion.  Give  him  a  glass  of  water;  tell 
him  it  is  whiskey;  he  drinks  it  and  staggers. 
The  writer  has  witnessed  many  experiments 
with  hypnotized  subjects,  and  he  has  yet  to 
observe  a  single  lapse  in  these  mental  processes. 
The  mind  of  the  fourth-dimensional  body  can- 
not classify  a  series  of  known  facts  and  reason 
from  them  up  to  a  general  conclusion;  but 
give  it  a  general  conclusion  to  begin  with,  and 
it  will  argue  deductively  down  to  every  legi- 
timate inference  with  marvelous  rapidity  and 
brilliancy — infinitely  above  the  capacity  of  the 
subject  in  his  normal  condition.  The  trans- 
formation is  often  startling;  in  one  moment 
we  may  be  talking  with  a  very  mediocre  in- 
62 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

dividual,  in  the  next,  under  hypnotism,  we 
may  have  a  genius  on  our  hands.  The  physical 
brain,  it  appears,  is  in  no  way  connected  with 
these  mental  processes.  Evidently  some  power 
or  intelligence,  a  power  or  intelligence  that 
transcends  all  ordinary  experience,  is  at  work. 
The  fourth-dimensional  intelligence  is  the  real 
genius.  We  can  not  play  a  piano,  or  ride  a 
bicycle,  or  drive  an  automobile  until  our 
"muscles  are  automatically  educated,"  which 
is  but  another  way  of  saying  that  the  fourth- 
dimensional  mind  is  the  master.  It  is  a  mind 
of  perfect  memory,  and  what  it  has  once  ac- 
quired it  can  not  forget.  To  give  but  one  of 
thousands  of  instances:  the  writer  once  saw 
an  ignorant  negro  placed  in  a  state  of  hypnosis, 
and  while  in  this  condition  ten  or  twelve  lines 
of  the  Greek  text  of  Thucydides  were  read  to 
him.  Five  months  later  the  man  was  again 
hypnotized,  and  upon  command  repeated  cor- 
rectly not  only  the  words,  but  imitated  with 
astonishing  accuracy  the  reader's  voice  and 
inflection.  Endowed  as  this  wonderful  in- 
63 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

telligence  is  with  the  instinct  of  self-preserva- 
tion, its  operations  seem  incredible.  Walking 
along  the  escarpment  of  some  precipice  while 
under  the  influence  of  the  fourth-dimensional 
mind  (or  while  asleep,  as  we  should  say),  the 
somnambulist  is  guided  with  unerring  accu- 
racy, but  let  him  awake — let  him  become  sub- 
ject to  the  action  of  the  physical  brain — and 
he  is  dashed  to  death.  Instead  of  being  lo- 
calized, it  seems  to  penetrate  every  part  of  the 
body,  and  hence,  in  the  descriptions  of  its  opera- 
tions, we  so  often  hear  the  term  "reflex  action." 
But  we  must  beware  of  this  penchant  of  the 
materialist — this  habit  of  using  a  single  word 
or  a  phrase  to  describe  a  process.  It  is  too 
easy  to  be  comprehensive,  and  it  ought  there- 
fore to  arouse  our  suspicions.  Diabolical  pos- 
session, for  instance,  was  denied  by  scientists, 
until  they  coined  a  word,  hystero-demonopathy 
by  which  to  aperceive  it.  Give  them  time, 
and  the  old-fashioned  levitation  and  prophecy 
will  creep  into  the  fold,  so  dearly  do  the  scien- 
tists love  a  name.  A  frog's  brain  is  excised;  a 
64 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

drop  of  irritant  acid  is  placed  on  its  back;  in- 
stantly an  intelligent  effort  is  made  to  dis- 
lodge the  disturbing  element  by  scratching  the 
back  with  the  foot.  Herbert  Spencer  and  his 
school  will  tell  you  that  this  is  reflex  action; 
but  if  this  fourth-dimensional  intelligence  per- 
vades every  part  of  the  body,  and  is,  above  all 
things,  endowed  with  the  instinct  of  self- 
preservation,  then  the  frog  deports  himself, 
under  the  circumstances,  exactly  as  we  should 
expect.  Few  phrases  have  been  more  abused 
than  " reflex  action,"  and  few  writers  have 
offended  more  in  this  respect  than  Herbert 
Spencer,  who  considers  all  instincts  reflex 
actions;  and  as  if  this  were  not  sufficiently 
comprehensive,  he  informs  us  that  reflex  ac- 
tions are  instincts.  To  do  him  entire  justice, 
however,  he  often  finds  it  impossible  to  ad- 
here rigidly  to  his  formula,  for  when  he  meets 
an  instinct  that  is  obviously  not  reflex  action, 
he  tells  us  that  it  is  compound  reflex  action. 
The  most  abstruse  phenomena  are  now  clearly 
and  readily  elucidated  by  the  term  telepathy. 
65 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

But  it  should  be  remembered  that  up  to  a  few 
years  ago  the  orthodox  denied  the  genuineness 
of  all  phenomena  that  even  smacked  of  thought 
transference.  The  great  Helmholtz  himself 
said  in  this  connection:  "Neither  the  testi- 
mony of  the  members  of  the  Royal  Society, 
nor  the  evidence  of  my  own  senses,  leads  me 
to  believe  that  thought  can  be  transferred 
from  one  person  to  another  independently  of 
the  recognized  channels  of  communication." 
The  most  abstruse  phenomena,  as  we  have  said, 
are  now  explained  by  this  term,  and  yet  "  tele- 
pathy "  refers  but  to  a  coincidence  of  psychical- 
ly related  states,  plus  the  assumption  of  a 
causal  connection  between  them;  but  it  de- 
scribes no  known  process,  and  hence  explains 
nothing.  If  a  sleeping  man,  for  example,  has 
a  needle  suddenly  thrust  into  his  foot,  the  in- 
jured part  is  instantly  and  intuitively  with- 
drawn. Now,  much  of  our  thinking,  as  will 
be  admitted,  is  done  below  the  plane  of  con- 
sciousness. Thought  begins  with  the  cell 
which  chooses,  discriminates,  and  selects,  and 
66 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

since  the  cells  permeate  every  part  of  the  body 
and  every  cell  is  endowed  with  the  instinct  of 
self-preservation,  a  pin-thrust  will  be  followed 
by  an  involuntary  and  instant  withdrawal  of 
the  injured  member. 

This  consciousness  is  known  to  us  not  only 
as  "reflex  action,"  but  as  "instinct" — a  term, 
by  the  way,  which  is  used  to  cloak  a  vast 
amount  of  ignorance.  But  instinct  does  not 
explain  the  action  of  Eumenes,  a  kind  of  wasp, 
which  in  providing  food  for  its  young  displays 
a  knowledge  which  it  could  not  have  acquired 
from  an  ancestor.  Realizing  that  its  days  are 
numbered,  the  female  builds  a  cell  in  which 
she  lays  the  eggs.  Before  this  cell  is  sealed 
she  fills  it  with  spiders,  stung  in  such  a  manner 
as  only  to  paralyze  their  power  of  locomotion. 
Thus  the  future  larval  are  provided  with  live 
food,  a  meat,  by  the  by,  upon  which  the  mother 
never  feeds.  We  say  that  here  is  displayed  a 
knowledge  for  which  no  ancestral  experience 
could  have  afforded  a  precedent,  since  the 
mother  invariably  dies  before  the  eggs  are 
07 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

hatched.  The  use  of  the  word  "instinct"  in 
this  case  is  worse  than  useless,  and  only  ac- 
centuates our  ignorance.  This  example  is  quite 
sufficient  to  illustrate  our  point,  though  hun- 
dreds of  others  could  be  given  among  ants 
and  bees,  and  hymenoptera  generally.  Who, 
for  example,  can  read  that  truly  marvelous 
book,  "The  Life  of  the  Bee,"  by  Maeterlinck, 
and  be  willing  to  accept  "instinct"  as  an  ex- 
planation of  the  phenomenon  which  is  de- 
scribed by  the  term  "spirit  of  the  hive"? 

Our  explanations  of  phenomena  are  too  often 
only  names  of  phenomena.  This  intelligence, 
one  of  the  objects  of  which  seems  to  be  the 
preservation  of  life,  permeates  every  portion 
of  the  bodies  of  all  conscious  organisms.  It 
cannot  be  localized;  it  is  ever  watchful,  ever 
alert,  and  knows  no  fatigue.  This  is  a  start- 
ling proposition — that  a  working  organism 
never  tires — and  we  should  be  inclined  at  first 
glance  to  question  the  truth  of  the  assertion, 
yet  we  are  all  acquainted  with  the  fact,  as  the 
following  example  will  show;  but  so  common 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

is  it,  so  familiar  a  phenomenon,  that  we  have 
ceased  to  regard  it.  The  physical  brain  of  the 
three-dimensional  body  would  hopelessly  fail 
under  long-sustained  periods  of  labor,  so  sleep 
is  necessary  for  rejuvenation,  and  probably  one- 
third  of  our  lives  we  lie  drugged  with  slum- 
ber. But  the  brain  of  the  fourth-dimensional 
mind,  with  all  its  functions,  knows  not  fa- 
tigue. Regard  for  a  moment  the  powerful 
array  of  chest  and  abdominal  muscles  that 
carry  on  the  work  of  respiration.  With  each 
deep  inspiration  we  lift  about  500  pounds 
through  the  space  of  about  one  inch.  Through 
the  course  of  a  lifetime  thousands  of  tons  of 
blood  are  pumped  by  the  heart  through  the 
body.  These  organs  are  controlled  by  nerves, 
and  the  nerves  by  a  superphysical  intelligence 
which,  fortunately  for  us,  requires  no  sleep. 
The  tremendous  amount  of  intelligent  work 
carried  on  in  the  body,  while  the  only  con- 
sciousness which  the  average  man  recognizes 
is  dead,  is  truly  astonishing.  The  physician, 
above  all  others,  should  appreciate  this,  but 
69 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

unfortunately  the  majority  of  the  profession 
are  unable  to  shake  off  the  early  influence  of 
official  teaching.  As  a  rule,  he  looks  for  an 
external,  extrinsic  truth,  and  hence  yields  to 
a  fact  (?)  without  discussion,  and,  untrained 
in  philosophic  reasoning,  often  confounds  his 
hasty  generalizations  with  the  facts  themselves. 

This  fourth-dimensional  consciousness  is  the 
very  antithesis  of  the  third.  Under  no  cir- 
cumstances can  they  dwell  together  in  har- 
mony— a  fact  which  was  recognized  by  Philo, 
and  which  he  expressed  as  follows:  "Our 
understanding  departs  when  the  divine  spirit 
arrives,  and  it  returns  after  the  latter  has  de- 
parted, because  the  mortal  and  the  immortal 
cannot  dwell  together." 

This  physical  brain  looks  into  the  past  of 
the  human  race,  and  sees  there  only  a  record 
of  blood  and  tears,  of  helpless  blundering,  of 
stupid  acquiescence  and  inane  aspirations. 
Delving  in  the  condition  of  the  present,  it  sees 
only  the  vice,  misery,  the  injustice,  the  ap- 
palling wretchedness  of  countless  millions,  and 
70 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

concludes  that  our  position  here  is  wholly 
illogical,  that  life  is  an  unceasing  Via  Dolorosa 
under  the  inexorable  lash  of  a  tyrannical  mas- 
ter, and  that  we  are  the  children  of  an  irre- 
sponsible fate  and  the  heirs  of  an  unawakening 
death. 

The  future  yields  no  brighter  prospect,  for 
it  is  merely  a  question  of  time  before  the  earth 
"swings  rayless  and  pathless  and  tideless  in 
the  moonless  air,"  no  longer  tolerating  a  race 
which  for  a  brief  moment  disturbed  its  soli- 
tude. The  fatal  quality  of  atomic  dissociation 
will  drag  even  matter  down  into  the  dust. 
Death  itself,  and  love,  which  is  even  stronger, 
will  be  as  though  they  had  never  been;  and 
all  that  is  will  be  neither  better  nor  worse  for 
all  the  love,  all  the  suffering,  all  the  friendship 
which  countless  generations  of  men  throughout 
the  ages  have  striven  to  effect. 

The  physical  brain  is  of  the  earth  earthy. 

It   dwells   in  space,    recognizes  time,   and   is 

affected  only  by  time  and  space  relations.     It 

is  that  consciousness  which  is  oppressed  by 

71 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

skepticism  and  by  a  sense  of  remoteness  from 
God  when  the  littleness  of  man  is  contrasted 
with  the  vastness  of  the  physical  universe  as 
revealed  by  modern  astronomy.  It  is  that 
consciousness  which  does  not  perceive  that 
time  and  space  are  relative,  that  the  electrons 
within  the  atom  rehearse  the  order  of  the 
universe,  reproduce  the  glory  of  the  heavens, 
and  that  in  a  single  dewdrop  there  are  whole 
systems  of  whirling  suns  and  planets  which 
vastly  outnumber  those  revealed  by  the  most 
powerful  of  telescopes. 

The  fourth-dimensional  consciousness,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  that  which,  despite  the  ter- 
rible past,  the  paralyzing  present,  and  the  ap- 
palling future,  realizes  that  our  position  here 
is  logical,  feels  that  our  earthly  lives  connect 
a  well-ordered  past  with  a  well-ordered  future, 
knows  that  all  are  but  parts  of  one  harmonious 
whole,  and  that  love  is  the  basis  of  all  things. 
To  those  who  have  entered  this  state  it  is  not 
a  question  of  mere  belief;  they  know,  and  they 
know  by  the  surest  method  upon  which  truth 
72 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

can  be  built  —  the  certitudes  of  conscious- 
ness. 

The  three-dimensional  brain  is  the  brain 
which  sees  the  contradictions  :  of  life  and  op- 
presses us.  The  fourth-dimensional  brain  is 
the  brain  that  reconciles  the  contradictions, 
and  would  lift  us  up. 

Friendship  and  love  are  absolutely  necessary 
to  a  normal  existence,  and  yet  when  we  would 
give  physical  expression  to  these  sentiments 
our  hands  are  fettered.  Solitude  and  silence 
are  appalling  to  us;  every  act  of  our  lives  is  an 
effort  to  escape  them;  but  as  soon  as  we  grow 

1  Wherever  we  turn  we  see  the  contradictions  in 
nature.  "Increase  and  multiply"  is  an  injunction  of 
divine  origin.  Yet  turn  to  Newton,  to  Young,  to 
Fresnel,  to  Bacon,  to  Faraday,  to  Spinoza,  to  Kant,  to 
St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  and  to  that  great  Carpenter  who 
has  made  holy  the  name  of  Nazareth,  and  they  tend 
not  to  offspring.  Maeterlinck  tolls  us  that  the  queen 
bee's  brain  turns  to  pulp  that  her  reproductive  organs 
may  profit;  and  among  the  workers,  on  the  contrary, 
those  organs  atrophy  to  the  benefit  of  their  intelligence. 
Is  it  possible  that  with  growth  of  intelligence  comes 
decrease  of  population?  Such  are  the  problems  evolved 
in  the  three-dimensional  brain  to  be  solved  later  in  the 
fourth  to  the  complete  satisfaction  of  man. 

6  73 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

out  of  the  illusions  of  youth  we  find  that  life's 
journey  is  made  in  a  silence  as  deep  and  as 
dark  as  the  grave.  We  reach  out  our  arms  for 
the  friendship  of  the  soul,  for  the  power  which 
binds  heart  and  heart,  and  which  we  feel  must 
exist,  only  to  be  crushed  by  the  realization 
of  the  truth  of  Flaubert's  dictum,  "Nobody 
understands  anybody."  We  would  know  one 
another  better;  we  would  love  one  another 
better;  and  yet  the  effort  to  bare  the  heart 
does  but  increase  the  already  impassable  gulf 
between  us — between  the  devoted  husband  and 
wife,  the  mother  and  child,  and  the  dearest 
of  friends.  Heredity  and  environment  are  the 
four  walls  of  the  bottomless  pit  into  which 
nature  has  cast  us,  and  within  whose  awful 
depths  no  kindly  touch  is  felt,  nor  heard  the 
echo  of  a  friendly  voice. 

The  physical  brain  being  a  brain  of  time  and 
space,  and  therefore  capable  of  being  in  rela- 
tion to  but  one  thing  at  any  single  moment  of 
time,  would  very  naturally  deduce  what  we 
have  asserted  to  be  characteristic  of  it.  The 
74 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

fourth-dimensional  brain,  on  the  other  hand, 
being  above  time  and  space,  and  therefore 
capable  of  being  in  relation  to  all  things  at 
any  single  instant  of  time,  would  naturally 
deduce  the  very  opposite.  But  words  utterly 
fail  us  here.  One  must  experience  in  order  to 
know.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  men  holding  the 
first  view,  and  suddenly  changing  their  opin- 
ions, have  been  described  on  one  hand  as 
"mad"  and  on  the  other  as  having  been 
"born  again."  Some  such  illumination  must 
have  occurred  in  the  case  of  the  apostles  who, 
at  the  moment  of  the  arrest  of  the  great 
Nazarene,  denied  Him,  fearing  the  incon- 
venience of  a  Roman  prison,  and  then,  within 
a  few  hours,  snapping,  as  it  were,  their  fingers 
in  the  face  of  Rome's  authority,  daring  it  to 
do  its  worst  in  the  way  of  fire  and  sword,  the 
scaffold  and  the  stake.  It  would  seem  that 
this  attitude  of  mind  has  even  a  practical  value, 
for  it  can  and  does  lift  men  above  the  fear  of 
death  and  the  power  of  pain,  and  that  therefore 
men  are  justified  in  making  a  serious  effort  to 
75 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

attain  it.  Not  that  every  one  should  live 
upon  this  exalted  plane,  for  that  obviously  is 
impossible  in  our  present  stage  of  develop- 
ment, but  it  is  to  be  desired  that  all  men  should 
devote  at  least  a  few  moments  of  each  day  to 
the  experiment  of  throwing  off  the  illusion 
of  self.  Suppose  the  time  the  ordinary  man 
devotes  to  the  lip  service  which  he  calls  prayer 
were  expended  in  an  honest  effort  to  supply 
the  conditions  for  the  entrance  of  that  light 
which  gives  a  new  aspect  to  the  things  of  life, 
his  position  here,  as  Professor  Muirhead  has 
said,  would  be  rather  that  of  a  god  than  a 
man. 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 


TRUTH 

THE  relation  of  these  two  minds  to  what 
we  call  the  "truth"  has  no  doubt  occurred 
to  the  reader,  but  before  we  attempt  to  dis- 
cuss it  we  must  give  some  answer  to  the  ques- 
tion "  What  is  truth?"  It  is  a  concept  or  ideal 
presented  to  our  minds  through  the  medium  of 
language,  and  as  language  and  ideas  develop 
and  change,  so  must  change  our  concept  of 
truth.  In  our  present  stage  of  development 
we  can  differentiate  two  kinds  of  truth — the 
absolute  and  the  relative.  The  latter  concerns 
itself  with  the  "conformity  of  knowledge  with 
the  reality  known,"  concerns  itself  with  such 
an  obvious  fact  as  the  existence  of  this  knife 
and  pencil,  and  never  asks  if  they  are  only 
figments  of  our  brain.  The  knife  and  pencil 
are  relative  truths  upon  which  all  sane  people 
77 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

are  agreed,  and  men  have  reached  this  con- 
clusion through  the  operation  of  their  three- 
dimensional  physical  brains.  But  the  fourth- 
dimensional  intelligence  might  go  beyond  this 
— might  see  in  the  knife  and  pencil  only  the 
ultimates  thereof,  might  realize  that  force  and 
not  matter  in  the  sense  in  which  we  use  the 
word  is  the  basis  of  the  universe,  might  realize 
that  under  some  circumstances  they  might  ap- 
pear as  unstable  as  the  wall  through  which 
passed  the  body  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  There  is 
no  concurrence  of  opinion,  then,  regarding  the 
absolute  truth  of  the  knife  and  pencil,  as  there 
is  in  respect  of  their  relative  truth.  Can  we 
say  as  much  in  regard  to  the  spiritual?  It 
appears  not.  Indeed,  it  seems  that  there  are 
no  relative  truths  in  religion  that  have  the 
common  assent  of  men.  On  the  contrary, 
faith  appears  to  be  the  very  "matrix  of  relative 
truth  in  religious  matters";  and  hence  faith, 
as  the  wise  from  time  immemorial  have  taught, 
is  the  sine  qua  non  of  spiritual  development. 
If  this  were  better  understood,  there  would 
78 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

be  no  such  divergence  of  opinion  as  is  char- 
acteristic of  the  pulpit  to-day — a  divergence 
which  grows  with  the  increase  of  three-dimen- 
sional knowledge,  and  which,  however,  is  per- 
fectly natural  because,  in  speaking  or  writing 
of  spiritual  matters,  we  are  attempting  to 
describe  fourth-dimensional  experiences  in  a 
language  evolved  wholly  from  the  contempla- 
tion of  three-dimensional  phenomena,  and  this 
we  can  no  more  accomplish  than  could  a  deep- 
sea  fish  relate  its  temporary  experiences  in 
shallow  water.  The  two  planes,  the  third  and 
the  fourth  dimensional,  are  separate  and  dis- 
tinct, and  the  divergence  of  experience,  as  we 
have  said,  is  so  great  that  only  in  a  separate 
and  distinct  language  can  it  be  recounted. 
The  language  of  the  fourth  is  what  we  know  as 
clairaudience;  it  is  a  telepathic  process,  and 
only  by  employing  it  can  we  acquaint  one 
another  with  the  relative  truths  which  we  may 
have  discovered.  So  much,  then,  for  relative; 
but  absolute  truth  in  religion  is  quite  a  dif- 
ferent proposition,  for  it  concerns  itself  with 
79 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

the  very  fount  of  things,  and  hence  we  can  not 
know  it.  All  we  can  do  is  to  approximate  it, 
and  we  can  approximate  it  nearer  on  the  fourth 
plane  than  on  the  third.  It  is  doubtful  if  in 
this  life  man  can  attain  to  a  greater  approxi- 
mation of  absolute  truth  than  the  conviction 
that  this  universe  is  the  personal  life  and  daily 
experience  of  the  All-Sustainer ;  than  the 
realization  that  every  detail  thereof;  that 
every  movement  in  every  flagella  of  every 
micro-organism;  that  every  beat  of  a  mother's 
breast,  whether  of  pleasure  or  pain;  that  every 
quake  in  the  planets  that  fill  the  void;  that 
every  pulse  in  the  fiery  tides  of  the  myriad 
stars  He  weaves  into  one  harmonious  whole, 
which  is  His  Ego,  His  Life,  and  His  Personality. 
Briefly,  then,  the  function  of  the  physical,  or 
three-dimensional  brain,  is  to  establish  rela- 
tive truth  in  matters  material,  while  the  func- 
tion of  the  fourth  is  to  establish  relative  truths 
in  matters  spiritual,  and  to  approximate  abso- 
lute truth  in  matters  material  and  spiritual. 
It  is  not  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  vast 
80 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

majority  of  the  confusion  attending  arguments 
on  religious  or  moral  questions  is  to  be  attrib- 
uted to  our  efforts  to  establish  absolute  truth 
by  the  operations  of  the  three-dimensional 
brain.  The  great  moral  principles  about  which 
men  have  so  much  to  say  shift  from  generation 
to  generation;  they  change  from  day  to  day, 
and  hence  are  not  moral  principles  at  all. 
They  are  at  most  only  relative  truths,  and  are 
true  only  in  so  far  as  belief  or  faith  in  them 
has  made  them  true.  Murder,  suicide,  polyg- 
amy, slavery,  and  piracy  have  all  been  defend- 
ed on  "high  moral  grounds." 


MATTER    AND    SOME 


THERAPEUTIC    VALUE    OF    FOURTH- 
DIMENSIONAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

WE  are  now  acquainted  with  some  of  the 
characteristics  of  the  third  and  fourth 
dimensional  minds.  We  have  seen  that  the 
former,  which  is  the  physical  brain,  often  be- 
comes a  master  of  induction,  and  that  the 
latter  is  godlike  in  its  deductive  power.  It 
is  immaterial  what  premise  you  give  it,  it  will 
reason  invariably  and  instantly  to  a  correct 
conclusion — if  the  premise  be  false,  to  a  false 
conclusion;  if  ridiculous,  to  a  ridiculous  con- 
clusion— but  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that 
the  reasoning  will  always  be  correct. 

To  the  student  of  medicine  the  following  will 

strongly  appeal:    To  a  person  in  a  hypnotic 

state  repeated  suggestion  that  he  is  strenuously 

exerting  himself,  as  in  running,  or  fighting,  or 

82 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

lifting  a  heavy  weight,  the  physical  or  logical 
effects  of  such  actions  would  be  manifested  in 
a  quickening  of  respiration  and  heart  action; 
and  these  are  to  be  found  in  the  subject  in  a 
striking  degree.  If  this  statement  is  correct — 
and  it  is  well  within  the  power  of  any  intelli- 
gent and  interested  man  to  demonstrate  its 
truth  or  falsity — we  can  readily  appreciate  to 
what  extent  this  power  would  operate  as  a 
factor  in  therapeutics.  It  will  not  do  to  ig- 
nore the  fact  that  a  simple  suggestion  will 
affect  the  involuntary  non-striated  muscles 
just  as  would  a  powerful  poison.  The  aston- 
ishing recent  success  of  many  distinguished 
divines  and  physicians  in  New  York  and  Bos- 
ton, and  elsewhere,  eloquently  confirms  this 
view  of  the  matter.  And  now  to  summarize: 
The  fourth-dimensional  intelligence  is  im- 
personal, and  receives  every  impression  im- 
posed upon  it,  good  or  evil,  constructive  or 
destructive,  and  acts  its  part  with  inimitable 
accuracy.  Its  powers  far  transcend  those  of 
ordinary  consciousness,  as  evidenced  by  the 
83 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

presence  of  new  functions,  such  as  mind  read- 
ing, thought  transference,  clairvoyance,  and 
the  like.  It  possesses  the  power  to  diagnose 
the  character  of  disease  and  a  knowledge  of 
the  various  organs  of  the  body  often  exceeding 
that  of  the  skilled  physician.  At  times  it 
dispenses  with  medical  resources,  and  accom- 
plishes its  results  by  dwelling  upon  the  diseased 
parts,  restoring  them  to  their  normal  condi- 
tions by  repeated  suggestions  of  perfect  health. 
To  such  an  extent  is  it  endowed  with  the  crea- 
tive principle  that  we  are  justified  in  saying 
that  our  bodies  are  verily  what  we  think  them 
to  be.  The  great  Lamarck,  though  pre- 
eminently a  man  of  science,  realized  this  in  a 
measure  when  he  said  that  all  growth  was  from 
within;  and  the  evangelist  Mark,  though  de- 
riving his  information  from  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent source — the  fourth-dimensional  mind — 
reached  the  same  conclusion  and  expressed  it 
in  the  ever-memorable  words:  "Whatsoever 
ye  pray  and  ask  for,  believe  that  ye  have  re- 
ceived, and  ye  shall  receive."  Make  no  haste; 
84 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

plant  the  seed  of  desire;  look  upon  your  men- 
tal creation  as  spiritual  realities,  and  let  the 
Divine  intelligence  do  the  rest.  Hence  "he 
who  believes  shall  not  make  haste,"  is  one  of 
the  greatest  scientific  truths  ever  enunciated. 
There  is  scarcely  a  work  devoted  to  the  dis- 
cussion of  philosophic  or  religious  questions 
that  fails  to  warn  us  of  the  destructive  power 
of  doubt,  while  impressing  upon  us  the  effi- 
ciency of  faith.  However  much  intellect  is 
to  be  commended,  it  has  its  disadvantages, 
since  it  increases  our  doubts,  and  therefore 
becomes  the  greatest  hindrance  to  our  success. 
All  progress  is  from  below  upward;  hence  we 
should  expect  to  hear  wisdom  from  the  hum- 
ble and  unintelligent.  They  have  not  their 
intellect  trained  to  doubt,  and  hence  they  often 
see  intuitively  and  instantly  what  so  often 
comes  laboriously,  if  at  all,  to  the  better  dis- 
ciplined intellect.  For  example,  St.  Francis 
of  Assisi — who  was  nearer  like  Jesus  than  any 
man  probably  before  or  since  his  time,  as  he 
wandered  through  the  forests  of  Italy  calling 
85 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

the  winds  his  brothers  and  the  birds  his  sisters 
— was  very  close  to  the  truth  of  that  great 
biological  generalization  that  all  are  of  one 
origin,  and  constitute  one  relationship.  In  all 
his  moments  of  ecstasy  (contact  with  the  sec- 
ond ring,  brought  about  by  fasting  and  prayer, 
or  perhaps  as  the  result  of  some  slight  con- 
genital perversion  of  the  nervous  system)  he 
realized  the  divine  nature  of  the  very  earth 
on  which  he  trod.  He  saw  with  the  fourth- 
dimensional  mind  that  matter  is  a  projection 
from  a  spiritual  plane — saw  instantly  and 
clearly  what  modern  science,  with  its  three- 
dimensional  brain,  has  been  so  laboriously 
evolving  through  all  the  centuries — viz.,  that 
the  aggregation  of  electrons  which  we  know 
as  the  earth  is  simply  an  expression  of  the 
Will  or  Thought  of  the  All-Sustainer.  The 
earth  appears  as  an  expression  of  the  will  of 
the  All-Sustainer,  and  as  the  great  is  but  an 
image  of  the  small,  health  and  whatsoever  we 
wish  appear  in  us  as  the  result  of  our  will. 
What  the  great  Creator  does  on  a  gigantic 
86 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

scale,  we,  feebler  creators,  do  on  a  smaller 
scale — the  difference  being  one  of  degree,  not 
of  kind.  And  Jesus,  realizing  the  tremendous 
creative  power  of  will,  or  desire,  inherent  in 
man,  when  asked  where  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
was,  very  naturally  replied :  "  It  is  within  you." 
Hence  that  "as  a  man  thinketh,  so  he  is,"  is 
a  scientific  verity.  This  is  the  weak  point  in 
the  position  of  the  Christian  Scientist.  Under 
the  illumination  of  the  fourth-dimensional  con- 
sciousness he  realizes  that  time  and  space  are 
only  relative,  and  that  matter  is  not  the  stable 
thing  we  conceive  it  to  be.  Misled  by  this 
phenomenon,  he  asserts  the  unreality  of  all 
things,  including  sin  and  disease.  He  fails  to 
see  that  sin,  disease,  death,  and  matter  are 
stern  realities  when  measured  by  a  conscious- 
ness the  seat  of  which  is  of  like  measure  to  the 
things  measured,  and  that  they  vanish  when 
estimated  by  an  intelligence  of  a  nature  un- 
like the  things  estimated,  for  man  ("manas," 
the  thinker)  knows  in  the  world  of  his 
own  being,  but  he  knows  in  that  world 
87 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

only  that   which  is    of  like   nature    to   him- 
self. 

When  the  individual  is  well  seasoned  in  all 
the  details  and  experiences  of  time  and  space, 
or  when  he  is  peculiarly  "well  balanced"  or 
developed  from  a  physical  standpoint,  he  is 
seldom  or  never  aware  of  the  existence  of  this 
inner  self,  or  inner  ring.  Time  and  space  being 
the  essential  characteristics  of  the  outer  ring, 
of  the  physical  self — being,  indeed,  the  very 
instruments  through  which  they  function — we 
are  powerless  to  raise  the  inner  self  to  action 
unless  we  can  eliminate  time  and  space,  or  at 
least  modify  our  relations  to  them.  Is  this 
possible?  The  materialist  will  deny  it;  yet 
the  already  accomplished  suppression  of  the 
grosser  instincts — the  slow  but  sure  increase 
of  the  clairvoyant  faculty  and  the  premonitions 
of  biology — would  seem  to  justify  an  affirma- 
tive answer.  Too  much  importance  cannot  be 
laid  upon  the  depressing  effects  of  time  and 
space  upon  the  inner  self.  In  more  than  one 
instance  the  writer  has  heard  intelligent  men 
88 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

attribute  the  first  weakening  of  faith  to  the 
study  of  astronomy.  "The  thought  of  infinite 
space,"  says  Herbert  Spencer,  "in  comparison 
with  which  our  sidereal  system  dwindles  to  a 
mere  point,  appalls  me."  And  so  with  large 
masses  and  large  numbers  generally.  Indeed, 
few  environments  are  more  calculated  to  in- 
crease the  sense  of  insignificance,  and  there- 
fore to  weaken  the  conviction  that  there  is 
anything  in  man  worth  carrying  over  into 
another  life,  than  a  vast  crowd,  a  fact  to 
which  Byron  refers  in  characteristic  phrase- 
ology. It  is  probably  no  exaggeration  to  say 
that  Copernicus,  through  the  establishment 
of  the  truth  of  the  heliocentric  system,  and  the 
consequent  opening  up  to  the  mind  of  man 
those  awful  vacuities  of  space,  did  more  to 
weaken  the  hold  on  the  old  orthodox  faiths 
than  all  other  men  combined.  But  it  all  de- 
pends upon  your  point  of  view.  It  is  a  pur- 
blind philosophy  which  says,  as  Dr.  Darwin 
so  despairingly  declared  a  short  time  ago,  that 
our  earth  is  but  a  puny  planet  circling  around 
7  89 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

a  star  of  inferior  magnitude.  Relatively  to 
others  that  are  larger,  of  course  it  is;  but  ours 
is  one,  knit  in  common  kinship  of  material 
with  all  the  rest,  and  not  only  not  isolated,  but 
absolutely  unified  by  that  all-pervading  ethe- 
real medium  of  which  all  things  are  but  tem- 
porary manifestations.  But  there  seems  to 
be  as  much  below  man  as  above  him.  The 
human  body  relatively  to  the  world  of  the 
atom  is  an  aggregation  of  countless  trillions 
of  sidereal  systems.  Why  not  sometimes  at 
least  compare  the  body  with  something  smaller, 
instead  of  something  larger  than  itself?  or 
why  not,  as  in  a  state  of  prayer,  modify  our 
relations  to  space  and  time  which,  since  they 
are  characteristic  of  three-dimensional  matter 
only,  can  but  veil  the  relation  of  the  inner  self 
to  the  All-Sustainer?  Man  possesses  the  po- 
tentiality of  many  and  varied  powers,  but  none 
so  pregnant  with  the  possibility  of  good  as  that 
which  enables  him  to  divorce  himself  from  him- 
self, and  thus  to  stand  in  nearer  relation  with 
the  Absolute. 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 


STIMULATION      OF      THE      FOURTH- 
DIMENSIONAL  CONSCIOUSNESS, 
AND  ITS  EFFECT 

T  ET  us  bear  in  mind  that  there  are  two 
•*-'  methods  by  which  our  relations  to  reality 
may  be  apprehended.  One  is  by  induction, 
through  the  operations  of  the  three-dimensional 
brain,  through  scientific  research  and  investi- 
gation, and  this  is  necessarily  slow,  laborious, 
and  tantalizing;  the  other  is  by  deduction 
through  the  operations  of  the  fourth-dimen- 
sional brain,  and  this  is  swift,  immediate,  and 
self-convincing.  It  is  said  that  the  normal 
man  can  reason  both  by  induction  and  de- 
duction. That  he  must  be  more  or  less  of  an 
expert  in  the  former  method  is  self-evident, 
since  he  himself  and  his  whole  environment 
are  on  a  three-dimensional  plane,  and  deprived 
of  this  power  he  would  be  as  incapable  of  car- 
91 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

ing  for  himself  as  an  insane  subject.  But  that 
the  perfectly  normal,  well-sustained  animal, 
man,  ever  reaches  a  great  fundamental  truth 
by  deduction  is  to  be  doubted.  Such,  how- 
ever, by  rendering  himself  abnormal  may  be- 
come a  master  of  deduction,  and  proficiency  in 
this  respect  seems,  at  times,  to  bear  some 
relation  to  the  degree  of  abnormality  induced. 
Divergence  from  the  normal  may  result  from 
a  blow  on  the  head,  a  brain  lesion,  the  delirium 
of  fever,  prolonged  fasting,  or  a  congenital 
perversion  of  the  nervous  system,  and  subjects 
of  all  these  conditions  have  at  times  acquired 
powers  of  deduction  that  far  transcend  those 
possessed  by  them  in  their  normal  state.  In 
fact,  even  a  momentary  derangement  of  the 
nervous  system,  induced  by  causes  of  which 
we  are  wholly  ignorant,  will  often  suffice. 
But  whatever  the  cause,  the  effect  is  most 
startling,  and  even  when  the  veil  has  been  for 
a  moment  lifted  the  experience  or  vision  of 
the  percipient  has  been  so  vivid  that  it  can  be 
described  in  no  other  language  than  "sternest 
92 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

reality  of  life."  Numerous  instances  might 
be  cited,  nor  can  the  evidence  be  disputed,  for 
it  is  so  abundant,  so  consentaneous,  that  we 
must  accept  the  facts  or  deny  the  possibil- 
ity of  certifying  facts  by  human  testimony. 
Divergence  from  the  normal  may  be  produced 
and  controlled  more  perfectly  by  fasting  than 
by  any  other  method.  Hence  the  founders  of 
the  most  spiritual  religions  and  the  most  per- 
fect systems  of  philosophy  and  morals  have 
been  not  only  abstemious  men,  but  have  in- 
sisted upon  placing  fast  before  prayer.  Whether 
with  or  without  significance,  the  fact  remains 
that  religious  and  lofty  ideals  have  been  pro- 
duced not  in  beef,  but  in  rice  eating,  countries 
—  that  is,  among  abstemious  people  —  and 
doubtless  there  is  much  truth  in  the  vulgar 
saying,  "You  can  not  reach  the  heights  on  a 
loaded  stomach."  Anything,  it  appears,  that 
destroys  the  nervous  balance  at  times,  tends 
to  bring  about  more  or  less  of  that  illumination 
which  is  characteristic  of  the  fourth-dimen- 
sional intelligence. 

93 


MATTER    AND    SOME 


SPIRITUAL  EXALTATION 

/""NNLY  on  two  occasions  has  the  writer 
^^  been  the  recipient  of  anything  like  it, 
and  in  both  it  was  after  periods  of  great  men- 
tal distress.  The  phenomena,  which  lasted 
for  a  few  moments  only,  are  impossible  to  de- 
scribe for  the  excellent  reason  that  language 
which  has  been  evolved  from  the  consideration 
of  the  material  could  not  very  well  suffice  for 
the  description  of  superphysical  things.  Many 
have  attempted  to  convey  their  impressions, 
but  with  ill  success,  and  the  writer,  hoping  to 
profit  by  the  failure  of  others,  will  only  say 
that  he  was  convinced  during  the  illumination, 
and  conviction  has  grown  with  the  passing 
years,  that  life,  which  proceeds  from  the  All- 
Sustainer,  is  immortal — that  a  consciousness 
exists  apart  from  that  which  the  average  man 
94 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

recognizes,  that  the  shadow  cast  by  the  glorious 
light  of  the  second  ring  is  what  we  call  the 
psychical  body,  and  that  matter  is  not  dead, 
but  a  living  presence.  The  mental  elevation, 
the  increased  capacity  for  the  perception  of 
truth  and  the  feeling  of  perfect  love,  trust,  and 
confidence  are  characteristics  no  less  marvel- 
ous. An  acquaintance  with  this  illumination 
is  by  no  means  new  to  man.  On  the  contrary, 
it  can  be  traced  back  until  it  is  lost  in  the  twi- 
light of  fable.  It  was  known  to  the  Hindus 
from  the  earliest  times  as  Kaivalya,  to  the 
Jews  as  Jahed,  to  the  Greeks  as  Monogeneia, 
or  "alone-becoming,"  the  power  of  divorcing 
yourself  from  your  time  and  space  relations, 
hence  of  placing  yourself  on  the  inner  ring. 
Jesus,  possessing  this  power  to  a  supreme 
degree,  has  been  called  not  only  the  "only 
begotten,"  but  also  the  "Alone-becoming  Son 
of  God." 

There  is  an  unbroken  record  of  men  from 
Zoroaster  to  Walt  Whitman  who  have  been 
in  touch  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  with  the 
95 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

fourth-dimensional  intelligence.1  Let  us  ex- 
amine for  a  moment  the  experiences  of  the 
three  greatest  characters  of  history,  whose  per- 
sonalities for  the  last  twenty-five  hundred 
years  have  dominated  the  imaginations  of  all 
men,  Gautama,  Jesus,  and  Mohammed.  The 
illuminated  Hindu  says,  "They  who  by  stead- 
fast mind  have  become  exempt  from  evil  desire 
and  well  trained  in  the  teachings  of  Gautama; 
they,  having  obtained  the  Fruit  of  the  Fourth 
Path,  and  immersed  themselves  in  Ambrosia, 
have  received  without  price,  and  are  in  the  en- 
joyment of  Nirvana."  Nirvana  is  described 
as  a  "consequence  of  understanding  that  all 
things  are  equal."  "There  is  no  real  Nirvana 
without  All-Knowingness,"  and  though  this 
is  the  language  of  the  enthusiast,  and  smacks 
of  exaggeration,  it  is  an  accurate  description 
of  one  phase  of  the  fourth-dimensional  experi- 


1  The  history  of  the  "Illuminated"  in  all'ages  has 
been  admirably  told  by  Dr    Richard  Maurice  Bucke, 
in  a  work  entitled  "Cosmic  Consciousness,"  to  which 
the  writer  is  greatly  indebted. 
96 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

ence.  Not  that  men,  under  these  circum- 
stances, know  all  things,  yet  they  feel  that 
they  possess  such  a  power;  but,  hampered  by 
the  physical  plane  and  the  language  thereof, 
they  are  unable  to  describe  even  what  they 
see.  And  again:  "He  who  beholds  all  things 
in  the  self  and  the  self  in  all  things,  he  never 
turns  away  from  it."  Such  experience  seems 
common  to  all  mystics,  and  any  one  who  has 
been  without  the  physical  self  even  for  a  mo- 
ment can  hardly  doubt  that  the  great  Hindu 
teacher  had  attained  to  the  superphysical 
plane.  The  experience  of  the  great  Naza- 
rene  was,  in  some  respects,  at  least,  similar 
to  that  of  many  of  the  illuminated.  How 
often  are  we  told  in  the  descriptions  of  these 
phenomena  that  they  are  accompanied  by 
a  great  light,  or  flame,  or  cloud,  supple- 
mented by  an  objective  voice  of  command. 
"And  straightway  coming  up  out  of  the  wrter, 
he  (Jesus)  saw  the  heavens  rent  asunder,  and 
the  Spirit  as  a  dove  descending  upon  him ;  and 
a  voice  came  out  of  the  heavens  saying,  '  Thou 
97 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

art  my  beloved  Son;  in  thee  I  am  well  pleased/ 
and  straightway  the  Spirit  driveth  him  forth 
into  the  wilderness."  Mohammed  also  heard 
the  voice,  and  he,  too,  sought  solitude  in  the 
wilderness,  in  obedience  to  the  commands  of 
the  Spirit.  Hundreds  of  passages  might  be 
quoted  from  the  New  Testament  to  prove  that 
Jesus  was  acquainted  with  and  had  actually 
experienced  the  fourth-dimensional  illumina- 
tion, but  one  will  suffice.  It  stands  for  itself, 
and  needs  no  comment:  "Verily,  verily,  I  say 
unto  thee,  except  a  man  be  born  anew  he  can 
not  see  the  Kingdom  of  God."  "I  felt  like 
one  born  into  a  new  world"  is  a  common  ex- 
pression with  those  who  attempt  to  describe 
their  fourth-dimensional  experiences.  Let  the 
reader  picture  a  man  with  an  intelligent,  kindly 
face,  inclined  somewhat  to  melancholy,  and 
with  a  nervous  system  so  exquisitely  balanced 
that  the  slightest  physical  pain  or  even  un- 
pleasant odor  would  impair  its  equilibrium,  and 
probably  that  man  could  tell  something  of  the 
things  that  lie  at  the  basis  of  the  physical. 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

Such  a  man  was  Mohammed.  The  wilderness 
(solitude),  fasting,  prayer,  visions  (so-called), 
the  sudden  illumination,  the  voice  of  command, 
enthusiasm,  or  faith  in  the  mission  and  develop- 
ment of  the  great  powers  which,  fortunately 
for  humanity,  are  turned  generally  toward 
altruism.  All  these  experiences  were  his. 
Mohammed  was  a  perfect  type  of  the  second- 
birth  man,  in  so  far  as  he  experienced  all  the 
successive  steps  toward  the  attainment  of 
that  end.  Perhaps  the  sequence  of  steps  was 
as  well  marked  in  the  cases  of  Gautama  and 
Jesus,  but  unfortunately  only  fragments  of 
their  lives  have  come  down  to  us.  But  the 
list  of  names  in  the  ancient  times  is  a  long  one. 
Those  interested  will  be  well  repaid  in  reading 
anew  the  Old  Testament,  especially  of  Moses, 
of  Gideon,  of  Isaiah,  and  of  Esdras.  No  race 
has  been  without  this  illuminating  intelligence. 
The  Chinese,  in  604  B.  c.,  produced  one  of  the 
greatest  lights  in  the  person  of  Lao-tsze.  So 
powerful  is  the  conviction  that  this  fourth- 
dimensional  consciousness  is  a  separate  entity 
99 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

that  it  is  often  addressed  as  a  different  per- 
sonality. Christ  called  it  the  Father,  and 
Lao-tsze  the  Tao,  or  the  Supreme  Being.  He 
says:  "He  who  is  skilful  in  managing  his  own 
life  travels  on  land  without  having  to  shun 
rhinoceros  or  tiger,  and  enters  a  host  without 
having  to  avoid  buff  coat  or  sharp  weapon. 
The  rhinoceros  finds  no  place  in  him  into 
which  to  thrust  his  horn,  nor  the  tiger  a  place 
in  which  to  fix  its  claws,  nor  the  weapon  a 
place  to  admit  its  point.  And  for  what  rea- 
son? Because  there  is  in  him  no  place  of 
death.  He  who  has  in  himself  attributes  of 
Tao  is  like  an  infant.  Poisonous  insects  will 
not  sting  him,  fierce  beasts  will  not  seize  him, 
birds  of  prey  will  not  strike  him."  This  is  no 
exaggeration — without  one's  self,  one  is  on  a 
higher  plane — and  it  has  been  demonstrated 
that  wild  animals  will  not  attack  one,  even  in 
a  partial  state  of  hypnosis.  This  has  been 
proven  time  and  again  in  India  with  the 
venomous  snakes  and  the  most  ferocious  beasts 
of  prey.  In  Paris,  a  few  years  ago,  a  woman 
100 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

in  a  state  of  hypnosis  was  placed  in  a  cage  with 
three  lions;  instead  of  attacking  her,  they 
seemed  awed,  as  though  in  the  presence  of 
some  strange  and  unearthly  power.  The 
prophets  of  old  were  men  pre-eminently  of  this 
character;  hence  we  can  readily  believe  that 
Daniel  availed  himself  not  of  supernatural,  but 
of  transcendental  means.  One  of  the  most 
striking  figures  of  the  first  century  after  Christ 
was  Apollonius  of  Tyana.  Little  is  known  of 
his  early  life,  but  in  the  zenith  of  his  powers 
his  name  was  a  household  word  throughout 
the  limits  of  the  Roman  Empire.  He  was  the 
only  man,  it  appears,  who  incurred  the  enmity 
of  the  brutal  Domitian  and  escaped  unscathed. 
In  the  account  of  the  meeting  between  the 
Emperor  and  the  sage,  the  fact  is  very  appar- 
ent that  Domitian  knew  he  was  in  the  presence 
of  no  ordinary  man,  and  feared  to  put  into 
execution  his  threats  of  death.  Apollonius 
realized  that  his  wonderful  powers  (he  was 
credited  with  miracles  as  great  as  those  attrib- 
uted to  Jesus)  were  not  supernatural,  but 
101 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

within  the  grasp  of  all  men,  for  when  asked  by 
Domitian  how  he  could  predict  with  such  ac- 
curacy the  plague  at  Ephesus,  replied,  "Be- 
cause I  live  simply  and  eat  little,  did  I  the 
first  perceive  its  approach."  The  feat  which 
most  astonished  his  contemporaries  was  the 
foretelling  of  the  moment  and  manner  of  the 
tyrant's  death — an  instance  of  clairvoyance 
so  true  to  every  detail  that  it  impressed  the 
unbridled  imagination  even  of  that  day.  It 
will  not  be  contended,  of  course,  that  every 
man  who  eats  little  and  lives  simply  can  acquire 
the  power  to  divest  himself,  even  partially,  of 
his  time  and  space  relations.  A  congenital, 
unstable  nervous  organism,  fostered  by  ab- 
stemiousness, is  no  doubt  the  key  that  unlocks 
the  secret  of  Apollonius's  success. 

The  Middle  Ages,  no  less  than  ancient  times, 
have  furnished  their  quota  of  illustrious  men, 
among  whom  may  be  mentioned  Las  Casas, 
St.  John  of  the  Cross,  Pascal,  Spinoza,  Sweden- 
borg,  Madame  Guion,  Roger  Bacon,  and  Jacob 
Boehme.  There  is  not  a  dull  page  in  the  lives 
102 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

of  any  of  them,  but  that  of  Boehme  is  prob- 
ably most  suggestive.  Of  humble  birth,  prac- 
tically without  education,  save  that  which  he 
had  himself  acquired,  following  the  humble 
calling  of  shoemaker,  yet  he  has  been  styled 
the  founder  of  German  philosophy.  "Sitting 
in  his  room  one  day,  his  eyes  fell  upon  a  bur- 
nished pewter  dish  which  reflected  the  sun- 
shine with  such  marvelous  splendor  that  he  fell 
into  an  ecstasy,  and  it  seemed  to  him  as  if 
he  could  now  look  into  the  principles  and  deep- 
est foundations  of  things."  Note  the  brilliant 
light,  the  increased  capacity  for  the  perception 
of  truth,  the  "  All-Knowingness "  which  seem 
to  characterize  so  many  of  the  illuminated. 
Hartmann  says  of  him:  "He  learned  to  know 
the  innermost  foundation  of  nature,  and  ac- 
quired the  capacity  henceforth  to  see  with  the 
eyes  of  the  soul  into  the  heart  of  things,  a 
faculty  which  remained  with  him  even  in  his 
normal  condition." 

Speaking  of  his  first  illumination,  he  said: 
"The  gate  was  opened  to  me  that  in  one- 
103 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

quarter  of  an  hour  I  saw  and  knew  more  than 
if  I  had  been  many  years  together  at  a  Uni- 
versity." The  majority  of  men  would  cer- 
tainly deny  that  there  was  on  record  a  prece- 
dent for  the  formulation  of  scientific  truth  from 
the  homologies  of  transcendentalism,  and  yet 
it  is  believed  that  a  diligent  study  of  meta- 
physical resemblances  resulted  in  the  discovery 
of  gravitation,  the  laws  of  force  and  orbicular 
motion.  In  other  words,  that  the  great  in- 
ductions of  Sir  Isaac  Newton  were  based  on 
the  intuitional  perceptions  of  this  master  of 
mystics,  Jacob  Boehme. 

William  Law  says:  "The  illustrious  Sir 
Isaac  plowed  with  Boehme's  heifer,  and  in 
deducing  planetary  attraction  from  the  facts 
of  Love,  Newton  used  these  words,  'Idemque 
dici  possit  de  uniformitate  ea,  quod  est  in 
corporibus  animalium.' "  This  quite  suffices 
to  prove  that  the  gulf  which  separates  New- 
ton's mind  from  the  mind  of  the  average 
physicist  of  this  day  and  generation  is  pro- 
found, indeed,  and  it  recalls  a  significant  passage 
104 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

from  Professor  Muirhead's  "  Ideals  of  Science 
and  of  Faith":  "Time  is  ill-spent  in  bemoaning 
lost  opportunities,  but  one  can  scarcely  refrain 
from  reflecting  for  a  moment  what  our  knowl- 
edge of  the  universe  might  have  been  to-day, 
and  how  our  sociological  conditions  might  have 
stood  at  present,  had  psychology,  rather  than 
physics,  been  our  chief  study — had  we  exam- 
ined and  developed  the  latent  spiritual  facul- 
ties within  us  at  least  pari  passu  with  our 
investigations  of  the  material  world  without 
us,  instead  of  adding  the  incubus  of  further 
complexity  to  the  heavy-funded  debt  of  igno- 
rance with  which  humanity  stands  at  all  times 
weighted." 

While  under  the  influence  or  domination 
of  the  three-dimensional  brain,  it  is  effort 
wasted  to  attempt  to  read  Boehme's  works; 
one  must  get  without  one's  self  to  do  so  suc- 
cessfully. Students  of  Browning  will  no  doubt 
appreciate  this  observation,  since  many,  per- 
haps, realize  that  the  deep  meaning  of  the 
poet  may  be  grasped  only  in  certain  prayerful 
8  105 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

moods.  It  is  said  of  Browning,  that  when 
asked  on  a  certain  occasion  to  interpret  a 
seemingly  obscure  line  in  one  of  his  poems,  he 
replied:  "I  can  not  do  so  now,  though  at  the 
time  I  wrote  it,  it  was  very  clear  to  me." 
But  Boehme  labored  under  no  such  disad- 
vantage, for  from  the  time  of  his  second  il- 
lumination until  his  death  there  was  no  lapse 
in  his  fourth-dimensional  powers.  In  bringing 
to  a  close  the  brief  sketch  of  this  remarkable 
man,  we  cannot  do  better  than  submit  Claude 
de  Saint  Martin's  estimate  of  him:  "I  am  not 
young,  being  now  near  my  fiftieth  year;  never- 
theless, I  have  begun  to  learn  German,  in 
order  that  I  may  read  this  incomparable  author 
in  his  own  tongue.  I  have  written  some  not 
unacceptable  books  myself,  but  I  am  not 
worthy  to  unloose  the  shoestrings  of  this  won- 
derful man,  whom  I  regard  as  the  greatest 
light  that  has  ever  appeared  upon  the  earth, 
second  only  to  Him  who  was  the  light  itself." 
Dante,  again,  that  divine  singer  of  the  Mid- 
dle Age,  realizing  that  the  fourth-dimensional 
106 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

consciousness  was  a  thing  apart,  addressed  it 
as  Beatrice.  And  here  is  an  illustration  of  the 
power  of  suggestion  to  warp  the  judgment  and 
the  critical  sense.  Students  and  interpreters 
of  Dante  regard  Beatrice  as  his  ideal  of  woman- 
hood; some,  indeed,  go  so  far  as  to  declare 
that  she  was  a  charming  young  girl  with  whom 
the  poet  in  his  youthful  days  was  madly  in- 
fatuated. Students,  accepting  the  judgment 
of  supposed  riper  scholars,  see  no  inconsistency 
between  these  views  and  Dante's  estimate  of 
her  as  set  forth  in  the  following  lines:  "A  lady 
appeared  to  me  robed  with  the  color  of  a 
living  flame;  I  turned  me  to  the  left,  with  the 
confidence  with  which  the  little  child  runs  to 
his  mother  when  he  is  frightened,  or  when  he 
is  troubled,  to  say  to  Virgil:  'Less  than  a 
drachm  of  blood  remains  in  me  that  does  not 
tremble.'"  And  again:  "When  I  was  near  the 
blessed  shore  the  beautiful  lady  opened  her 
arms,  clasped  my  head,  and  plunged  me  in 
where  it  behooved  that  I  should  swallow  the 
water.  .  .  .  Beatrice  was  standing  with  her 
107 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

eyes  on  the  eternal  wheels,  and  on  her  I  fixed 
my  eyes  from  there  above  removed.  Looking 
at  her,  I  inwardly  became  such  as  Glaucus  be- 
came on  tasting  of  the  herb  which  made  him 
consort  in  the  sea  of  the  other  gods.  Trans- 
humanizing  can  not  be  signified  in  words; 
therefore  let  the  example  suffice  for  him  to 
whom  grace  reserves  expression.  If  I  was 
only  what  of  me  thou  didst  last  create,  O  love 
that  governs  the  heavens,  thou  knowest,  who 
with  thy  light  didst  lift  me!"  Strange,  in- 
explicable conduct,  if  Beatrice  had  ever  dwelt 
in  the  flesh;  but  with  Beatrice  as  the  fourth- 
dimensional  consciousness  Dante's  text  is  per- 
fectly intelligible.  Those  interested  in  the 
works  of  the  poet  would  benefit  by  reading 
them  anew,  since  many  passages,  wholly  in- 
explicable on  the  old  assumption,  become  as 
clear  as  the  noonday  sun.  In  this  case,  as  in 
so  many  others,  we  have  the  sudden  bright 
light  or  flame,  the  increased  capacity  for  the 
perception  of  truth,  and  the  source  of  all 
Knowledge. 

108 


OF    ITS   DIMENSIONS 

The  materialist  will  say,  no  doubt,  that  such 
literature  and  such  authors  might  have  served 
a  purpose  in  ancient  time,  but  now  have  no 
place,  nor  are  they  produced  in  this  practical 
age.  Let  us  step  across  the  intervening  cen- 
turies and  ask  Henry  Thoreau's  experience: 

"I  hearing  yet  who  had  but  ears 

And  sight  who  had  but  eyes  before, 
I  moments  lived  who  lived  but  years 

And  trust  discern  who  knew  but  learning's  lore. 
I  hear  beyond  the  range  of  sound, 

I  see  beyond  the  range  of  sight 
New  earths  and  skies  and  seas  around, 

And  in  my  day  the  Sun  doth  pale  his  light." 

This  is  one  of  the  finest  descriptions  extant 
of  the  result  of  the  first  stage  of  the  fourth- 
dimensional  illuminations.  Many  in  this  day 
see  as  Thoreau  saw,  but  unfortunately  for  con- 
temporaries they  have  not  his  literary  ability, 
and  so  they  live  out  their  lives  in  obscurity. 
Walt  Whitman,  in  any  age,  would  have  been 
regarded  as  a  most  unusual  character,  and 
his  "Leaves  of  Grass,"  his  greatest  work,  as 
109 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

the  experiences  of  one  who  had  seen  and  heard 
not  as  other  men. 

"Hast  never  come  to  thee  an  hour, 
A  sudden  gleam  divine,  precipitating,  bursting  all 

these  bubbles,  fashions,  wealth? 
These  eager  business  aims,  books,  position,  arts, 

amours, 
To  utter  nothingness?" 

Most  of  us  at  some  time  in  our  lives  have 
been  touched  by  a  similar  spirit,  but  how  many 
can  say  with  Whitman: 

"I  know  that  the  hand  of  God  is  the  elder  hand  of 

my  own, 
And  I  know  that  the  Spirit  of  God  is  the  eldest 

brother  of  my  own, 
And  that  all  the  men  ever  born  are  also  my 

brothers, 

And  the  women  my  sisters  and  lovers, 
And  that  a  Kelson  of  creation  is  love." 

Still  the  pragmatist  asks,  "For  whose  bene- 
fit these  idle  dreams?" — incapable  ever  of  real- 
izing this  truth  that  material  advantage  will 

not  weigh  in  the  scale  with  the  knowledge  that 
110 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

makes  us  free.  But  Whitman  was  no  idle 
dreamer;  unspeakable  joy  was  in  his  heart, 
and  he  had  the  power  to  reflect  it  in  others. 
Of  pleasing  personality,  voice,  gesture,  and 
manner,  he  was  a  favorite  with  both  old  and 
young,  most  people  recognizing  in  him  two 
separate  and  distinct  personalities — the  one 
human,  for  above  all  things  he  was  a  man; 
and  the  other  superphysical,  that  power  which 
enabled  him  to  attract  animals,  and  instantly 
quiet  a  fretting  child  or  to  fill  an  aching  heart 
with  gladness.  The  power  of  Love,  which  the 
fourth-dimensional  consciousness  always  makes 
a  sine  qua  non,  was  not  with  Whitman  a  beau- 
tiful day  dream  to  solace  his  soul,  for  he  lived 
it  in  his  own  daily  life,  and  he  advised  others 
to  do  so.  He  held  that  it  was  the  only  exist- 
ence, and  that  the  ordinary  way  was  misery 
and  folly. 

But  of  the  modern  illuminated  man,  Honore" 
de  Balzac  was  perhaps  the  most  perfect  speci- 
men.    The  world  admits  his  peculiar  genius, 
for  it  knows  not  just  where  to  place  him;  just 
111 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

what  niche  he  fills  in  the  Hall  of  Fame  is  still 
a  debated  question.  A  man  is  to  be  pitied 
who  sees  in  Seraphita  or  Louis  Lambert  only 
the  operations  of  the  third-dimensional  brain. 
Parsons  says  that  Lambert  was  Balzac  him- 
self; and  Taine,  puzzling  over  Seraphita,  de- 
clares that  "his  instrument  was  intuition, 
that  dangerous  and  superior  faculty  by  which 
man  imagines  or  discovers  in  an  isolated  fact 
all  the  possibilities  of  which  it  is  capable,  a 
kind  of  second  sight  proper  to  prophets";  and 
Taine  was  justified  in  his  criticism,  for  in  Louis 
Lambert  Balzac  says  (of  himself),  "Though 
naturally  religious,  he  did  not  share  in  the 
minute  observances  of  the  Roman  Church; 
his  ideals  were  more  particularly  in  sympathy 
with  those  of  Saint  Theresa,  Fenelon,  several 
of  the  fathers,  and  a  few  Saints,  who  would 
be  treated  in  our  day  as  Atheists  or  Heretics. 
He  was  unmoved  during  church  services. 
Prayer,  with  him,  proceeded  from  an  impulse, 
a  movement,  an  elevation  of  spirit  that  fol- 
lowed no  regular  course;  in  all  things  he  gave 
112 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

himself  up  to  nature,  and  would  neither  pray 
nor  think  at  settled  periods.  He  speaks  of 
the  link  which  connects  the  visible  to  the 
superior  world;  he  acts,  he  sees,  he  feels 
through  his  inner  body" — the  fourth-dimen- 
sional intelligence.  Again:  " Humanity  moves 
hither  and  thither  in  the  natural  world — the 
three-dimensional  plane — which  is  fixed  neither 
in  its  essence  nor  in  its  properties;  the  spiritual 
world  is  fixed  in  its  essence."  In  the  "Country 
Doctor,"  in  his  analysis  of  the  character  Fos- 
seuse,  Balzac  proves  that  he  was  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  fourth-dimensional  intelli- 
gence, and  that  its  manifestations,  sometimes 
at  least,  are  to  be  attributed  to  an  unstable 
nervous  organism.  He  says  to  Genestas: 
"Everything  reacts  upon  the  Fosseuse;  if  the 
weather  is  gray  and  somber  she  is  sad,  and 
weeps  with  the  skies;  she  sings  with  the  birds, 
grows  calm  and  serene  with  the  blue  heavens; 
a  delicate  perfume  is  to  her  an  inexhaustible 
pleasure.  I  have  seen  her  the  livelong  day 
enjoying  the  fragrance  of  mignonette  after 
113 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

one  of  those  rainy  mornings  which  draw  out 
the  soul  of  flowers.  Sometimes  I  find  the  poor 
girl  weeping  at  the  scene  our  mountains  give 
at  sunset  when  innumerable  magnificent  clouds 
cluster  about  their  golden  peaks.  'Why  do 
you  weep,  my  child?'  I  say  to  her.  'I  do  not 
know/  she  answers;  'I  am  like  one  bewildered, 
looking  up  there.  I  don't  know  where  I  am, 
I  see  so  far.'"  At  the  age  of  twenty-two  he 
tells  Genestas  that  she  is  perishing — "a  victim 
to  the  too-responsive  fibers  of  an  organism 
which  is  overstrung,  or  too  delicate." 

Of  all  men,  however,  who  have  written  on 
the  subject,  Edward  Carpenter  is  the  most 
instructive  —  instructive  because,  unlike  the 
majority  of  the  illuminated,  he  possessed  a 
keen,  analytical  mind,  unusual  literary  ability, 
and  the  rare  faculty  of  putting  things  clearly. 
His  contact  with  the  fourth-dimensional  plane 
does  not  appear  to  have  been  as  complete  as 
many  others — St.  John,  for  example — else  the 
account  of  his  experiences  would  have  been  as 
involved  as  that  of  the  "Beloved  Disciple." 
114 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

He  says:  "I  really  do  not  feel  that  I  can  tell 
you  anything  without  falsifying  and  obscuring 
the  matter";  and  in  this  respect  he  agrees  with 
those  who  have  felt  the  illumination  of  the 
inner  life.  In  speaking  of  the  Eastern  and 
Western  types,  he  says:  "The  West  seeks  the 
individual  consciousness — the  enriched  mind, 
ready  perceptions  and  memories,  individual 
hopes  and  fears,  ambitions,  loves,  conquests — 
the  self,  the  local  self,  in  all  its  phases  and 
forms — and  surely  doubts  whether  such  a 
thing  as  a  universal  consciousness  exists.  The 
East  seeks  the  universal  consciousness,  and  in 
those  cases  where  its  quest  succeeds,  individual 
life  and  self  thin  away  to  a  mere  film,  and  are 
only  the  shadows  cast  by  the  glory  revealed 
beyond."  Again:  "If  I  should  be  asked — as 
I  have  sometimes  been  asked — 'What  is  the 
exact  nature  of  this  mood,  this  illuminated 
splendor,  of  which  you  speak?'  I  should  have 
to  reply  that  I  can  give  no  answer.  All  that 
I  can  say  is  that  there  seems  to  be  a  vision 
possible  to  man,  as  from  some  universal  stand- 
115 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

point,  free  from  the  obscurity  and  localism 
which  especially  connect  themselves  with  the 
passing  clouds  of  desire,  fear,  and  all  ordinary 
thought  and  emotion,  in  that  sense  another 
and  separate  faculty;  and  a  vision  always 
means  a  sense  of  light,  so  here  is  a  sense  of 
inward  light,  unconnected,  of  course,  with  the 
mortal  eye,  but  bringing  to  the  eye  of  the  mind 
the  impression  that  it  sees,  and  by  means  of 
the  medium  which  washes,  as  it  were,  the  in- 
terior surfaces  of  all  objects  and  things  and 
persons — how  can  I  express  it?  And  yet  this 
is  most  defective,  for  the  sense  is  a  sense  that 
one  is  those  objects  and  things  and  persons 
that  one  perceives,  and  (the  whole  universe) — 
a  sense  in  which  sight  and  touch  and  hearing 
are  all  fused  in  identity.  Nor  can  the  matter 
be  understood  without  realizing  that  the  whole 
faculty  is  deep  and  intimately  rooted  in  the 
ultra-moral  and  emotional  nature,  and  beyond 
the  thought  region  of  the  brain."  In  view  of 
what  has  been  said  about  the  necessity  for 
assuming  the  existence  of  a  fourth  dimension, 
116 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

the  following  extract  is  of  especial  interest: 
"There  is  another  idea  which  modern  science 
has  been  familiarizing  us  with,  and  which  is 
bringing  us  towards  the  same  conception — that, 
namely,  of  the  fourth  dimension.  The  sup- 
position that  the  actual  world  has  four  space 
dimensions,  instead  of  three,  makes  many 
things  conceivable  which  otherwise  would  be 
inconceivable.  It  makes  it  conceivable  that 
apparently  separate  objects  —  e.  g.,  distinct 
people — are  really  physically  united;  that 
things  apparently  sundered  by  enormous  dis- 
tances of  space  are  really  quite  close  together; 
that  a  person  or  object  might  pass  in  or  out 
of  a  closed  room  without  disturbance  of  wall, 
doors,  or  windows.  If  this  fourth  dimension 
were  to  become  a  factor  of  our  consciousness 
it  is  obvious  that  we  should  have  means 
of  knowledge  which,  to  the  ordinary  sense, 
would  appear  simply  miraculous.  There  is 
much,  apparently,  to  suggest  that  the  con- 
sciousness attained  by  the  Indian  Gnanis  in 
their  degree,  and  by  the  hypnotic  subjects 
117 


MATTER    AND    SOME 

in  theirs,  is  of  the  fourth  -  dimensional  or- 
der." 

Tennyson,  for  whom  the  whole  civilized 
world  entertained  the  most  profound  respect, 
confirms  the  experience  of  the  East  in  the  fol- 
lowing remarkable  passage: 

"A  kind  of  walking  trance  I  have  frequently 
had,  quite  up  from  boyhood,  when  I  have  been 
all  alone.  This  has  often  come  upon  me 
through  repeating  my  own  name  to  myself  si- 
lently till,  all  at  once,  as  it  were,  out  of  the 
intensity  of  the  consciousness  of  individuality, 
the  individuality  itself  seemed  to  dissolve  and 
fade  away  into  boundless  being;  and  this  not 
a  confused  state,  but  the  clearest  of  the  clear- 
est, the  surest  of  the  surest,  the  weirdest  of 
the  weirdest,  utterly  beyond  words,  where 
death  was  an  almost  laughable  impossibility, 
the  loss  of  personality  (if  so  it  were)  seemed 
no  extinction,  but  the  only  true  life." 

J.  William  Lloyd  declares  that  "with  the 
intellectual  illumination  comes  an  indescrib- 
able moral  elevation,  and  intense  and  exalted 
118 


OF    ITS    DIMENSIONS 

joyfulness,  and,  along  with  this,  a  sense  of 
immortality;  not  merely  a  belief  in  a  future 
life — that  would  be  a  small  matter — but  a  con- 
sciousness that  the  life  now  being  lived  is 
eternal,  death  being  seen  as  a  trivial  incident 
which  does  not  affect  its  continuity.  Further, 
there  are  annihilations  of  the  sense  of  sin  and 
an  intellectual  competency,  not  simply  surpass- 
ing the  old,  but  on  a  newer  and  higher  plane." 
But  the  reader's  patience  need  not  be  further 
taxed  in  the  matter  of  examples,  for  probably 
he  has  already  thought  of  Emerson,  of  Pushkin, 
of  Finney,  of  Jefferies,  of  Tyner,  and  of  many, 
no  doubt,  known  only  to  himself — of  people 
in  humble  station,  but  whose  lives  are  filled 
with  the  joy  that  passeth  all  understanding,  of 
men  and  women  who  can  truly  say: 

"There  is  no  peace  except  where  I  am, 
Though  you  have  health — that  which  is  called 
health — yet  without  me  it  is  only  the  frail 
covering  of  disease; 

Though  you  have  love,  yet  if  I  be  not  around  and 
between  the  lovers  is  their  love  only  torment 
and  unrest; 

119 


Though  you  have  wealth,  and  friends,  and  home — 
all  these  shall  come  and  go — there  is  nothing 
stable  or  secure  which  shall  not  be  taken 
away." 

Wordsworth  called  the  consciousness  of  the 
inner  ring,  which  is  simply  another  dimension 
in  space,  the  "Blessed  mood";  Gautama  called 
it  "Nirvana,"  and  Jesus  the  "Kingdom  of 
God";  but  these  were  merely  terms  by  which 
they  sought  to  express  the  inexpressible. 
Language,  we  know,  fails  us  when  we  attempt 
to  picture  the  experiences  of  those  who  have 
been  initiated  into  the  mysteries  of  the  inner 
life.  But  why  limit  the  dimensions  of  matter — 
if  four,  why  not  five;  if  five,  why  not  infinite; 
and  if  infinite,  then  we  have  not  even  begun 
to  dream  of  the  potentiality  of  that  little  dif- 
ferentiated portion  of  energy  which  we  call 
the  "Ego." 

THE  END 


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